FSnet Aug

FSnet Aug. 29/08 -- II

BARFBLOG: Sun TV listeria outbreak coverage

ALBERTA: Alta. hospitals still serving deli meats, despite listeriosis outbreak

CANADA: Did nursing homes ignore deli meat warnings?

BLOG: Listeria scare overwhelms laboratories in Canada

CALGARY: Moral of the story

OPINION: Don't fret, we eat listeria 'all the time'

ONTARIO: Meat of the matter

OKLAHOMA: E. coli count keeps rising near Locust Grove

UK: 15 struck down as E coli hits village's water supply

US: Concerns remain as salmonella outbreak comes to an end

BLOG: Quebec champions raw milk cheese

TEXAS: Restaurant reports

IRELAND: An international meeting on Cronobacter

Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: The Lactobacillus genus

Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: Streptococcus thermophilus

Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: The Lactococcus genus

Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: Bacterial taxonomy

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BARFBLOG: Sun TV listeria outbreak coverage
29.aug.08
Ben Chapman
barblog
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/08/articles/listeria-1/sun-tv-listeria-outbreak-coverage/
I did a phone-in interview with Sun TV (Toronto) yesterday which focused on what we can learn from the outbreak and what consumers could do to protect themselves. Irradiation seems to be coming up a lot in coverage and interviews that we are doing, likely fueled by the FDA's announcement to allow the irradiation of certain ready-to-eat leafy greens and Health Canada's Jeff Farber saying that the government is considering approving the irradiation of meats early next year (http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/426223). Irradiation has been approved for certain specific single-ingredient meats (like ground beef) in the U.S. since 1997 (http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/NEW00603.html), with the USDA approving it's commercial use in 1999 though it's use in deli meats is not currently approved (http://www.meatami.com/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/41422/pid/3669). Last night I said that irradiation is a tool that can be used to reduce risk and impact public health, but by no means is a magic bullet in pathogen control.
The best part of the interview wasn't the content (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waj7-9A-AVw) but was my huge head appearing over Janette Luu's shoulder as if I was going to eat her Janette, probably sensing some impending doom appears to be leaning away from my picture as well.
Below (http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/08/articles/listeria-1/sun-tv-listeria-outbreak-coverage/) is the original pic where the headshot came from. I think it is less creepy.

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ALBERTA: Alta. hospitals still serving deli meats, despite listeriosis outbreak
28.aug.08
Vancouver Sun
Michelle Lang, Canwest News Service
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=64295a95-8839-4928-8480-d0b1287d3cf8
CALGARY -- Several Alberta hospitals and nursing homes are still serving deli meats to patients, despite recommendations from Health Canada that the elderly and people with compromised immune systems avoid cold cuts because of their risk of contracting listeriosis.
The Calgary Health Region, Edmonton-based Capital Health and two continuing care organizations acknowledged they have cold cuts on their menus, in the midst of a deadly national outbreak of the bacterial disease.
In other provinces, at least two cases linked to the listeriosis outbreak occurred in patients who ate tainted cold cuts while in hospital.
Alberta hospitals and long-term care centres say they have removed the recalled Maple Leaf Foods products. Several facilities, however, are continuing to serve other deli meats to patients, with the exception of pregnant women.
In Calgary, health region officials said the outbreak may lead them to reconsider the practice.
"This is a concerning event for everyone," said Dr. Judy MacDonald, the region's deputy medical officer of health.
"Something like this would give us the opportunity to relook at it and see if it's something we need to change."
Long before the current scare, Health Canada recommended pregnant women, the elderly and immuno-compromised patients avoid cold cuts because they have a heightened risk of developing listeriosis, which can be fatal in 20 percent of cases.
"For at-risk populations, we have given the advice that these deli meats may be high risk foods," Dr. Jeff Farber of Health Canada said Thursday, noting that thoroughly heating cold cuts can address the problem.
At least one expert argued hospitals and old age homes should consider taking the products off their menus, unless the facilities start cooking the cold cuts.
"They should be careful . . . when the immune system is compromised, you can't give them cold cuts," said Dr. Subash Sad, a microbial immunologist for the National Research Council.
But Health Canada has never recommended health facilities stop serving deli meats, noting that hospitals are a provincial responsibility.
In Calgary, two nursing home operators, Carewest and Bethany Care Society, confirmed some of their facilities serve cold meats.
"If public health says not to serve cold cuts to seniors, then we wouldn't," said Janice Kennedy, a Bethany spokeswoman. "We're still meeting requirements."
Capital Health officials said their hospitals still serve cold meats, but the organization will consider whether the practice should continue as part of ongoing food safety reviews.

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CANADA: Did nursing homes ignore deli meat warnings?
28.aug.08
National Post
Tom Blackwell
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=753991
Amid the debate over the role of Canada's meat-inspection system in the listeriosis outbreak, a much simpler question about the affair is emerging: Could the death toll have been slashed simply by keeping deli meats off nursing home menus?
A background article posted on the Health Canada Web site almost three years ago noted that the elderly are among the most susceptible to the disease, and that such high-risk people should avoid "non-dried" deli meats, among other foods. And yet it appears most of the outbreak's victims were senior citizens living in long-term care facilities, apparently served the kind of cold cuts linked to the bacteria's recent spread.
Some experts say banning such food in nursing homes and hospitals would be an overreaction to a rare event, and ignores other food, like milk and even cabbage, that has been linked to listeria in the past. Others say institutions should have acted sooner.
"The outbreak we're going through right now is more or less a fluke," said Dr. Michel LaverdiËre, past president of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada. "This was a break in the food preparation. I don't think we should go overboard and say that all of those prepared foods should be banned from old-age homes."
Health Canada's November, 2005, article on listeria and food safety lists pregnant women and their fetuses or newborn children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems as the most at risk to develop serious illness if they come in contact with the bacteria.
It suggests a number of precautions to avoid infection, such as sanitizing utensils and surfaces that were in contact with raw meat. The article also suggests that high-risk people avoid certain foods, including non-dried deli meats. Dried and salted deli meats such as salami generally do not support growth of listeria, the article notes.
Asked on Thursday if Health Canada would tell long-term care facilities to stop serving deli meats, Dr. Jeff Farber of Health Canada said only that the educational material the department has available now is effective, and will be improved in future (how does he know it is effective? ñ dp)
Dr. Andrew Potter, an infectious disease expert at the University of Saskatchewan, argued against banning individual items, noting that almost any food can be a source of some harmful microbe. Past listeria outbreaks have stemmed from milk and cabbage, spinach sometimes carries E. coli and unpasteurized apple cider harbours salmonella. It is better to prevent contamination at the source, with safer meat processing or by developing vaccines for animals, he said.
Dr. Jill Hobbs, another University of Saskatchewan professor who specializes in the economics of food safety, also dismissed the idea of keeping certain foods from the elderly. She advocates better tracing of food so recalls can be more effective.
"We risk implying that all deli meats are dangerous," she said. "It's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

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BLOG: Listeria scare overwhelms laboratories in Canada
29.aug.08
Medindia Health News
http://blogs.medindia.net/general-news/listeriosis-scare-overwhelms-laboratories-in-canada/
The listeriosis scare is overwhelming the blood testing laboratories in Ontario, Canada. The labs are being advised to refuse tests for those who have no symptoms.
It is in such a backdrop there seems a major rush for blood tests. Authorities say that it is normal for people who've eaten recalled meat to wonder if they'll get sick with listeriosis - the bacteria has an incubation period of 11 to 70 days. But in Ontario, so many people are seeking blood tests that the labs are unable to cope with the demand on them.
Healthy people who have eaten recalled products will likely be fine and need not seek medical attention. If you have eaten the products and develop food poisoning or a fever, those are reasons to go to a doctor, health officials said.
"The concern is, capacity will be completely overwhelmed and we won't be able to deliver service to people who really need to have blood cultures," said Dr. Frank Thompson, medical director of Lifelabs in Toronto, which analyzes blood samples sent by doctors from across Ontario.
Thompson's lab would normally run fewer than 10 blood cultures for listeria a day. Since the beginning of the week, the lab has been doing more than 150 a day.
There is no benefit in testing healthy people, agreed Dr. Vanessa Allen, a microbiologist at Ontario Public Health Labs.
"There is no test for those who are asymptomatic because it's not clear that would give us any information that would be helpful, nor is there any therapy that would be offered," said Allen.
Family doctors in Ontario said they were told about the meat recall, but they were given little other direction from public health officials.
"That advisory as far as I can recall didn't mention what should we be doing if a healthy person comes in and asks to be tested," said Dr. Dara Maker, a family physician in Toronto.
Thompson said he understands it is difficult for family doctors to persuade people they don't need the test, but he urged physicians to do so. Provincial health officials told doctors to order tests only if patients are showing symptoms, such as malaise, fever, diarrhea and cramps.

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CALGARY: Moral of the story
29.aug.08
Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/letters/story.html?id=5ee7f572-fd74-469b-9c08-fe113ea2f2ab
Denise Volk, Calgary writes regarding, "Tragedy handled compassionately," Editorial, Aug. 27 to say she was shocked to read that Maple Leaf Foods' handling of the deadly listeria outbreak should be a lesson in corporate responsibility. Apologies and full-page ads do little to comfort the families of the people who suffered and died from this deadly outbreak. What about the pregnant women who have become exposed? What comfort do they take if their unborn baby dies or becomes very ill? Corporate responsibility happens at the beginning of the process.
Why did Maple Leaf Foods have to hear about the deadly outbreak being traced to their facility? Why did they themselves not discover the problem? Do they not test their products daily to ensure consumers are safe from food-borne pathogens? Why do health inspectors have to do the company's job of monitoring food safety? Let's see what Michael McCain does from here. Do they shut down that plant permanently? We have heard from many experts that listeria is very difficult to eradicate. Does Maple Leaf take an unprecedented step in trying to compensate victims' families without having the families being forced to engage in expensive class-action lawsuits?
Let this be a lesson to other food processing facilities. Take the steps up front to prevent illness from killing your customers. Spend the money upfront to hire onsite health inspectors who monitor food safety daily. I am sure McCain would agree that this is true corporate responsibility.

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OPINION: Don't fret, we eat listeria 'all the time'
29.aug.08
Ottawa Citizen
Kelly Egan
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=26a3e26d-3408-4bba-b7ea-0a208571cd7d
I've been making school lunches for seven years now. It is a wonder -- lost on listeria -- I haven't killed the poor lad.
Thousands of parents, no doubt, are wondering what to put in that lunch box next week. Would you buy a bunch of cold cuts right now and, without hesitation, feed them to your child?
It's probably safe. This is how much the world has changed in two weeks.
The more you read about listeria, the more you realize how blind we've been to the safety of our food-supply chain.
The advice from the experts can be read in two ways: a) panic or b) don't panic. Sorry, forgot to mention the third option: c) everyone back to sleep.
Rick Holley is a professor of microbiology at the University of Manitoba. He has worked in government and in private industry, looking at ways that pathogens get into the food supply.
I asked him whether, in this climate, he would send his children or grandchildren to school with a cold-cut sandwich.
"Sure I would. I've told my kids not to be overly concerned about this. We're eating listeria all the time."
It would be easy to conclude that listeria is an exotic visitor to one Toronto meat plant and, after a sound scrubbing down, it's back to normal, ham-and-cheese forever. If only it were so.
Listeria, for one thing, has several different species and sub-strains, some more harmful to humans.
"There is significant risk," Mr. Holley says, "every time you pick up lettuce or a carrot or tomato that listeria is going to be there, too."
No doubt consumers are strategizing about how to buy meat safely. I have heard much talk about avoiding products from large commercial outfits, in favour of local delis or ma-and-pa shops.
Intuitively, it makes sense -- fewer steps in the chain, more careful handling, trust in the butcher, no mass production, etc. ...
Draw no comfort, Mr. Holley says. The sense of security will be false. "No. They can have listeria, too."
While the volume of product is much smaller, so is the level of inspection, he pointed out.
A large producer will have more frequent inspections, but, even on this point, Mr. Holley says, do not view inspection as a guarantee.
"You can't inspect safety into food."
The inspector cannot visually check for listeria, he said, nor can he perform an instant test. By the time the bacteria is detected in a sample, the product is probably out in the marketplace.
If we tested 100 locations that cut and serve meat, I asked, how many would turn up positive for some strain of listeria?
"It's a hard question to answer," Mr. Holley said. "Periodically, you might find it in all of them. But not consistently in all of them. It comes in the plants all the time, but it gets flushed out."

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ONTARIO: Meat of the matter
29.aug.08
Globe and Mail
Pat Steenberg
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080829.COLETTS29-1/TPStory/Comment
Ottawa -- What is so surprising about the listeria outbreak is that it is so "surprising." The food industry's increasingly centralized structure makes it nearly certain a pathogen entering the food supply will be widely distributed.
In the U.S., four companies slaughter 80 per cent of the beef. Hamburger is made in huge batches using meat trimmings from multiple carcasses from multiple suppliers. A research project at Colorado State University found, based on DNA, that the average four-ounce patty contains tissue from 55 cattle; some had tissue from 1,000 cattle.
Moreover, most livestock now spend half their life in animal feeding operations or feed lots, where they continually walk in and on manure. One in two feedlot cattle harbour the O157:H7 strain of E. coli, as many as four in five in the summer

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OKLAHOMA: E. coli count keeps rising near Locust Grove
29.aug.08
NewsOK.com
John David Sutter
http://newsok.com/e.-coli-count-keeps-rising/article/3290119/?tm=1219986389
A state investigation into an E. coli bacteria outbreak in northeast Oklahoma is now focused exclusively on the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove, the state Health Department confirmed Thursday.
The department says an unusual strain of E. coli is to blame for at least 73 illnesses, 50 hospitalizations and one death. That toll has risen each day since the outbreak became public Monday.
Victims have become sick with severe stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. At least 12 of the victims are children, according to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, and several are undergoing dialysis.
The bacteria found in connection with the outbreak are part of a group of toxin-producing E. coli that is highly contagious. As few as 10 bacteria can make a person sick, state epidemiologist Kristy Bradley said. People should wash their hands before preparing food and after using the rest room to avoid contamination. If you come down with severe diarrhea, medical officials recommend you seek immediate medical help.
A spokeswoman for the restaurant said Wednesday it is unclear when the restaurant will open again. Two restaurant employees are among the ill, Bradley said, adding that they could have become sick from the restaurant's food, or may have caused the contamination.
The state also sent stool samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for further analysis. The state could not determine the exact type of E. coli present.

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UK: 15 struck down as E coli hits village's water supply
29.aug.08
The Daily Record
Lachlan Mackinnon
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news-feed/2008/08/29/15-villagers-hit-by-e-coli-86908-20715544/
Fifteen villagers have been struck down by an E coli outbreak, it emerged yesterday.
Health chiefs revealed that seven people were confirmed as having the O157 strain of the bug. A further eight were showing symptoms.
An outbreak of the same strain in 1996 resulted in the deaths of 21 elderly people in Lanarkshire.
All those affected in the latest incident, including a number of kids, shared a private water supply to eight homes in Auchinclech, near Westhill, Aberdeenshire.
NHS Grampian said two adults were treated in hospital and discharged. The rest were treated by their GPs.
A spokesman added: "None of those affected are giving cause for concern.
"We have contacted all the householders affected. They have been advised to boil their water before drinking or using it to prepare food.
"Aberdeenshire Council have provided advice on measures to protect the water quality in the longer term.
"This outbreak highlights the risks associated with private water supplies. They are liable to bacteriological contamination, causing infections."

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US: Concerns remain as salmonella outbreak comes to an end
29.aug.08
Los Angeles Times
Tiffany Hsu
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-salmonella29-2008aug29,0,6754844.story
Four months after an outbreak of salmonella hospitalized hundreds, forced groceries to toss out tomatoes and peppers by the thousands, infuriated fruit and vegetable growers and puzzled consumers, health authorities said Thursday that the epidemic was about over.
Officials said the number of cases from the nation's largest epidemic of food-borne illness had slid to non-outbreak levels in early August and there had been no clusters of victims since early July.
The produce industry and its customers felt a prolonged -- and often crippling -- burden lift.
"Unquestionably, we're relieved," said Tom Nassif, chief executive of the Irvine-based Western Growers Assn., whose members cultivate about half of the nation's produce. "But we don't want this thing swept under the rug. We still have a lot of people out there hurting."
The industry response is estimated to have cost between $130 million and $250 million, and workers who lost jobs and growers who planted a smaller crop this year will continue to feel the aftershocks.
Several produce executives accused the Food and Drug Administration of running a lengthy, uncertain investigation that shifted suspicion from tomatoes to jalapeno and serrano peppers, shattering consumer confidence.
Infections were first reported in mid-April, leading the FDA to issue a warning against certain tomatoes in early June. By the time the advisory was lifted in mid-July, many retailers had removed all tomatoes from shelves.
Weeks later, the FDA fingered Mexican jalapeno peppers after contaminated samples were found in a victim's home and a Texas distribution center. Soon after, the agency said it discovered salmonella in a serrano pepper and irrigation water on a Mexican farm. Mexican officials said tests by their investigators cleared the farm as the source.
American produce executives griped that at the beginning of the investigation health officials zeroed in too quickly on domestic tomatoes and refused to consider other possible sources. The FDA also shunned offers by produce producers to supply information that could have helped narrow the trace-back, they said.
A bill introduced in July by Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) asks the Department of Agriculture to compensate tomato growers and packers nationwide for $100 million in losses relating to the outbreak.
"Everybody agrees that this went on way too long and was unfocused, and that the public's health was not served," said Lisa Lochridge, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Assn.
Still, in a conference call with reporters Thursday, federal health officials suggested that there would be no tidy finale to the outbreak drama.
Some facts were straightforward: The outbreak sickened 1,442 people and caused at least 286 hospitalizations and possibly two deaths.
But even though investigators found no tomatoes that tested positive for salmonella, Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tomatoes might still have been a carrier at the start of the outbreak.
Officials also said they could not be sure they had the final or only origin of the outbreak.
And although the FDA on Thursday lifted the warning for consumers to avoid fresh peppers from Mexico, officials said they could not exclude the possibility that the bacteria could have an encore in the U.S.
"None of us can give a cast-iron guarantee that Salmonella Saintpaul won't reemerge," said David Acheson, the FDA's food safety chief.
Industry executives and health officials said they were trying to look ahead and use this outbreak to anticipate or prevent the next.
Acheson said government and industry should improve technology to better detect pathogens and promote electronic product tracking. An estimated 30 to 40 pieces of legislation have been introduced, industry executives said, dealing with issues including food safety programs, traceability and research funding.
"We're all trying to take something positive from a situation that had nothing good and improve things moving forward," Lochridge said.

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BLOG: Quebec champions raw milk cheese
28.aug.08
Canadian Living
The Foodie-file
http://canadianliving.com/blogs/foodie/2008/08/28/quebec-champions-raw-milk-cheese/
In North America, raw milk has been villainized as disease carrying poisonous bile that must be banned for the good of public safety. The rest of the world has been consuming raw milk with little ill effect since the first person ever took a stool and a pail to a lactating mammal. For years, raw milk lobbyists have touted the benefits of drinking milk in itís natural state. It is the irony of the food industry that we are adding microbes back into dairy products, like pre and probiotics, after we have obliterated these very things that occur naturally in the name of public safety. In the manner of sage bureaucratic wisdom and more likely for the efficiency of industrialized food production, governments have thrown out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to raw milk consumption.
Currently in Canada, raw milk cannot be sold for consumption and raw milk cheese must be aged for a minimum of 60 days, a death knell for soft ripened cheese like Camembert and Brie. If you have ever been to France and tasted Camembert and thought, why does it taste so good here? - this is one of the reasons why. The 60 day limit is a superfluous number arrived at by compromise rather than science, the idea is that the aging kills the pathogens in the milk but itís in no way conclusive that the pathogens are dead at that point. The pathogens are also the very thing that is desired by cheese makers to achieve a complex flavour and texture to cheese.
Quebec has been on the forefront of the crusade for flavourful cheese. They led the outcry when in 1996 Ottawa attempted an all out ban on raw milk cheese and Quebec cheese makers have been lobbying the province for years to change the regulations. Last month they won a battle for flavourful food; the government has modified regulations to allow the production and sale of raw-milk cheeses aged less than 60 days.
A battle won but a war still to fight, will the rest of Canada ever be allowed to include a runny Camembert on their cheese board?

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IRELAND: An international meeting on Cronobacter
29.aug.08
UCD Centre for Food Safety
http://www.ucd.ie/crono09/
Welcome
Dear Colleagues
We are pleased to invite you to an International Conference on Cronobacter (Enterobacter sakazakii). This conference will be held at University College Dublin, Ireland over two days from Thursday January 22nd to Friday January 23rd in 2009.
The conference is intended as a forum to disseminate information between industry, clinicians, government bodies and academic research. This will be the first conference of its kind where representatives from all these disciplines with an interest in this area are gathered together to exchange ideas.
The conference will include sessions on taxonomy, identification, surveillance, occurrence, public health and risk assessment. Workshops will be held after each series of talks to provide an opportunity for questions and open discussion.
The conference will include poster as well as oral presentations and abstracts are invited.
We look forward to seeing you in Dublin!

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Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: The Lactobacillus genus
01.sep.08
International Journal of Food Microbiology Vol. 126, Issue 3
Marion Bernardeaua, b, Jean Paul Vernouxa, SÈgolËne Henri-Dubernetc and Micheline GuÈguena
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235061%232008%23998739996%23696746%23FLA%23&_cdi=5061&_pubType=J&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=11c2a343c71d4030f6030cc4bceaf902
Abstract
Lactobacilli are Gram positive rods belonging to the Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) group. Their phenotypic traits, such as each species' obligate/facultative, homo/heterofermentation abilities play a crucial role in souring raw milk and in the production of fermented dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt and fermented milk (including probiotics). An up to date safety analysis of these lactobacilli is needed to ensure consumer safety. Lactobacillus genus is a heterogeneous microbial group containing some 135 species and 27 subspecies, whose classification is constantly being reshuffled. With the recent use of advanced molecular methods it has been suggested that the extreme diversity of the Lactobacillus genomes would justify recognition of new subgeneric divisions. A combination of genotypic and phenotypic tests, for example DNA-based techniques and conventional carbohydrate tests, is required to determine species. Pulsed-Field gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) has been successfully applied to strains of dairy origin and is the most discriminatory and reproducible method for differentiating Lactobacillus strains. The bibliographical data support the hypothesis that the ingestion of Lactobacillus is not at all hazardous since lactobacillemia induced by food, particularly fermented dairy products, is extremely rare and only occurs in predisposed patients. Some metabolic features such as the possible production of biogenic amines in fermented products could generate undesirable adverse effects. A minority of starter and adjunct cultures and probiotic Lactobacillus strains may exceptionally show transferable antibiotic resistance. However, this may be underestimated as transferability studies are not systematic. We consider that transferable antibiotic resistance is the only relevant cause for caution and justifies performing antibiotic-susceptibility assays as these strains have the potential to serve as hosts of antibiotic-resistance genes, with the risk of transferring these genes to other bacteria. However, as a general rule, lactobacilli have a high natural resistance to many antibiotics, especially vancomycin, that is not transferable. Safety assessment requirements for Lactobacillus strains of technological interest should be limited to an antibiotic profile and a study to determine whether any antibiotic resistance(s) of medical interest detected is (or are) transferable. This agrees with the recent EFSA proposal suggesting attribution of a QPS status for 32 selected species of lactobacilli.

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Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: Streptococcus thermophilus
01.sep.08
International Journal of Food Microbiology Vol 126, Issue 3
Christine Delorme, a
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235061%232008%23998739996%23696746%23FLA%23&_cdi=5061&_pubType=J&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=11c2a343c71d4030f6030cc4bceaf902
Abstract
Streptococcus thermophilus is a major dairy starter used in yogurt and cheese production. In Streptococcus genus, S. thermophilus is the only one food species among commensal and opportunistic pathogen species. Comparative genomics suggest that this species recently emerged and evolved by combination of loss-of-function and horizontal gene transfer events. These gene transfer events detected in S. thermophilus have originated from other dairy species and might contribute to its adaptation to the milk environment.
aLaboratoire de GÈnÈtique Microbienne, INRA de Jouy-en-Josas, France

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Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: The Lactococcus genus
01.sep.08
International Journal of Food Microbiology Vol 126, Issue 3
Erick Casaltaa, and Marie-Christine Montelb
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235061%232008%23998739996%23696746%23FLA%23&_cdi=5061&_pubType=J&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=11c2a343c71d4030f6030cc4bceaf902
Abstract
The Lactococcus genus includes 5 species. Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis is the most common in dairy product but L. garviae has been also isolated. Their biotope is animal skin and plants. Owing to its biochemical characteristics, strains of L. lactis are widely used in dairy fermented products processing. Cases of human infections due to lactococci are very seldom reported even if Lactococcus garviae can be involved in fish diseases. Then L. lactis can be considered as safe and it is most commonly considered as Generally Recognized as Safe.
aINRA, UR45 Recherches sur le DÈveloppement de l'Elevage, Campus Grossetti, F-20250 CortÈ, France bINRA, UMT545 Recherches FromagËres, 36, rue de Salers, F-15000 Aurillac, France

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Safety assessment of dairy microorganisms: Bacterial taxonomy
01.sep.08
International Journal of Food Microbiology Vol 126, Issue 3
DaniËle Sohiera, FranÁoise Berthierb, and JoÎlle Reitzc, 1
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235061%232008%23998739996%23696746%23FLA%23&_cdi=5061&_pubType=J&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=11c2a343c71d4030f6030cc4bceaf902
Abstract
Safety assessment requires uniform and reproducible nomenclature schemes for all the micro-organisms deliberately added in fermented food products. The QPS approach described by EFSA is based on the identity of an isolate at the highest taxonomic unit that is appropriate for the purpose for which the evaluation is intended. This depends upon the body of knowledge available for the micro-organism to be assessed and upon the nature of the micro-organism being assessed. Species identification is the fundamental unit of biological classification and is critical for describing, understanding and comparing biological diversities at different levels among ecological niches. Accurate taxonomic identification of a micro-organism is essential for assessing safety assessment, and this section describes current and advanced knowledge on bacterial taxonomy.
aADRIA, Z.A. de CrÈac'h Gwen, 29196 Quimper cedex, France bURTAL, B.P. 20089, 39801 Poligny cedex, France cSOREDAB, Chemin de la Tremblaye, 78125 La BoissiËre Ecole, France

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FSnet is supported at the Sterling Fork level by: CropLife Canada, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs , New Zealand Food Safety Authority, Monsanto Canada, and the Ontario Cattlemen's Association.

Fsnet is supported at the Silver-plate Fork level by: The National Restaurant Association, Unilever, Sholl Group/Green Giant Fresh, Feedlot Health Management Services, McDonald's, and 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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For more information about the FSnet research program, please contact:
Dr. Douglas Powell
associate professor
dept. diagnostic medicine/pathobiology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
66506
cell: 785-317-0560
fax: 785-532-4039
dpowell@ksu.edu
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu

archived at http://archives.foodsafety.ksu.edu/fsnet-archives.htm