Understanding the Rising Frequency of Listeria monocytogenes

Posted on October 17, 2024 by admin

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in recalls related to Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium responsible for listeriosis. This serious infection primarily affects pregnant women, newborns, the elderly, and individuals with weakened immune systems. The uptick in cases raises important questions for consumers regarding food safety and prevention.

What is Listeria monocytogenes?

Listeria monocytogenes is a resilient bacterium capable of thriving in diverse environments, including soil, water, and decaying plant matter. Its ability to grow at refrigerator temperatures makes it particularly concerning, as it can persist in ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats, unpasteurized dairy products, and certain fruits and vegetables.

Reasons for the Increase

1. Improved Detection Methods and Regulations:

Advances in microbiological testing have significantly enhanced our ability to identify Listeria in food products and clinical samples. This has resulted in more cases being detected and reported than in the past, creating the impression of increasing prevalence. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which began enforcing compliance in 2016, has also led to stricter regulations on testing for Listeria in manufacturing environments.

2. Better Traceability:

The FSMA has improved product traceability during production, facilitating quicker recalls when contamination is detected. Enhanced tracking systems enable more effective monitoring of food products throughout the supply chain.

3. Increased Consumer Awareness:

Consumers are becoming more vigilant about food safety, with heightened awareness driven by social media and news coverage of recalls. This increased scrutiny leads to more reports and concerns surrounding Listeria and other foodborne pathogens.

Protecting Yourself

Consumers can take proactive steps to minimize their risk of listeriosis:

– Safe Food Handling: Always wash hands, surfaces, and produce before preparing food. Follow cooking instructions on packaged items, ensuring that foods reach an internal temperature of at least 165°F (74°C) to effectively kill Listeria.

– Stay Informed: Keep an eye on food recalls and safety alerts related to Listeria. Many governmental health agencies provide regular updates and resources.

Conclusion

While the increase in Listeria monocytogenes cases is concerning, understanding the factors behind this trend can empower consumers to make informed choices. By practicing safe food handling and staying aware of food safety guidelines, individuals can significantly reduce their risk and contribute to a safer food environment for everyone.

Fun Fact

The first recognized outbreak of listeriosis in the United States occurred in 1981, linked to soft cheese, resulting in 52 cases and several deaths. Although Listeria monocytogenes was first isolated in the 1920s, it wasn’t until the 1981 outbreak that it gained significant attention in the U.S. as a foodborne pathogen. This outbreak highlighted the need for improved food safety measures and increased surveillance for Listeria-related illnesses.

Some Statistics on Listeria Recalls

2015: 25 recalls
2016: 23 recalls
2017: 24 recalls
2018: 31 recalls
2019: 27 recalls
2020: 29 recalls
2021: 33 recalls
2022: 34 recalls

This data illustrates a growing trend in recalls associated with Listeria, underscoring the importance of ongoing vigilance in food safety.

FDA Employee Health and Hygiene Handbook

Posted on July 1, 2024 by admin

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to emphasize the critical importance of employee health and hygiene in maintaining the highest standards of food safety within your establishment.
During my Food Safety trainings I often ask, “How many people have had an official employee illness training outside of taking this training? “.
The answer is astonishingly low.
Ensuring the well-being of your employees directly correlates with the safety and quality of the food you serve. The FDA has a comprehensive Handbook to address best practices.
The handbook is now accessible on our website MarylandFoodHandler.com . It covers essential topics such as proper handwashing techniques, illness reporting procedures, and personal hygiene standards that are crucial for preventing foodborne illnesses and maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements.
We encourage you to share this resource with your team managers and integrate its recommendations into your daily operations. By prioritizing employee health and hygiene, we collectively contribute to a safer and healthier environment for both your staff and your customers. Should you have any questions or require further assistance, training, or any other food safety concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am here to support you in upholding the highest standards of food safety. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Together, we can continue to raise the bar for food safety excellence.

Sue Farace, CP-FS

Employee Illness in retail food facilities

Posted on October 7, 2019 by admin

Why is it important to have a written policy and effective training for employee illness?

The cost of an outbreak is reported to be between $6,330 and $2.6 million dollars depending on type of retail facility and the severity of the illness. ³An outbreak is classified as 2 or more people. However, most illnesses related to foodborne illness go unreported and facilities are never implicated. The thought of “We will most likely not be caught” should not be your policy on preventing foodborne illness.

64% of outbreaks are from retail restaurants, 48% of those are from sit-down type facilities.¹ 58% of outbreaks ²are from at least one employee being ill. Only 47% of facilities implicated in outbreaks had a written policy on employee illness.

A study⁴ conducted that interviewed 491 workers from 391 randomly selected restaurants revealed some very important information about employee and management behaviors as it relates to employee illness. 59% of the employees surveyed reported working a shift while ill. Out of those 59%, 63% of managers were aware of the illness! 81% of the time it was the employee that notified the manager, yet the employee was still allowed to work. The reasons for continuing to work was;

43% No paid sick leave or sick leave policy
32% Understaffed or no one to cover shift
30% Symptoms did not feel bad or not contagious and
30% Felt obligated or strong work ethic.

Some indicated more than one reason. This indicates that employees, not managers, were making decisions about when to work. To make matter worse, of the ill employees that continued to work less than one third washed hands more frequently.

An FDA study published in 2004 found food establishments were frequently out of compliance with the Food Code requirements for proper and adequate handwashing. In the study, the percent of food establishments observed to be out of compliance with handwashing requirements ranged from 34% in hospitals and a whopping 73% in full-service establishments.

In my experience providing third party inspections, when I observed improper handwashing and explained the proper process, many had little to no understanding of how and when they should wash hands or they stated they didn’t have time.

This creates a perfect storm for transferring pathogens from hands of an ill employee to the surface of food.

What illnesses and medical conditions should management and employees be aware of?

There are certain illnesses, exposure to certain illnesses, or even infections that employees must report to management or the Person in Charge (PIC). The PIC must know what the next action should be. This could be restricting the employee from working around exposed food, excluding the employee from facility and possibly reporting the diagnosis, illness or exposure to the authorities. There are certain pathogens that employees must be made aware of. These are called the Big 6. They are;

Norovirus,
Hepatitis A virus,
Shigella spp.,
Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli,
Typhoid fever (caused by Salmonella Typhi) or
Salmonella (nontyphoidal).

Employees also should be made aware that they need to report excessive sneezing, coughing, general nasal discharge, skin cuts, lesions or infections and a sore throat with a fever. Vomiting and or Diarrhea, regardless of frequency. Jaundice that is less than 7 days old must be reported as well. Management and Employees should also understand the risks associated with Staphylococcus Aureus.

The person in charge should be most concerned with the following symptoms of foodborne illness;

Vomiting
Diarrhea
Jaundice (yellow skin or eyes)
Sore throat with fever
Infected cuts and burns with pus on hands and wrists

How are pathogens transferred to food and surfaces?

Transmission can happen in a variety of ways. Hand to food contact, Hand to surface to food, surface to hand to food. Water and oils in fecal matter can assist in the transfer of pathogens found in the feces.

How can the PIC prevent the spread of illness causing pathogens from ill employees?

Provide employee illness training to all staff members.
Be observant and inquire if employees appear to be ill.
Management must be informed of the specific circumstances that must be reported and when employees should be restricted from working around exposed food and when they should be excluded from facility.Details are available in the FDA food code subpart 2-201.11-13.
PIC must provide on-going and job specific training to all staff. Training should include;How easily pathogens like Norovirus can be transmitted, proper handwashing, proper glove use, and a reminder of all illnesses that must be reported.
Food handlers should be trained to not use bare hands to touch Ready to Eat (RTE) foods.
Provide a culture where reporting illness and missing shifts does not threaten employee hours or job security.
Create a culture of good hand care and reward staff for good practices.
Provide adequate supplies for proper hand care and tools for touching RTE foods.

Employee responsibilities and preventions

Reporting illnesses as required
Always, wash hands when required and using proper methods.
Report workers that are not reporting illness to PIC or are not properly washing hands.

It is important that the PIC be knowledgeable about employee illness, reporting, exclusion, and restricting of employees. This is discussed briefly in the Food Manager Protection training (ServSafe). Trained staff members must make sure the all staff are trained in employee illness as well. If you would like assistance creating an employee illness training for your staff, please contact us. We can provide decision trees, employee agreement forms and other training tools.

https://www.cdc.gov/fdoss/pdf/2017_FoodBorneOutbreaks_508.pdf
NORS and NEARS system, CDC
https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/tremendous-cost-foodborne-illnesses-and-what-do-about-it
Carpenter, L. R., A. L. Green, D. M. Norton, R. Frick, M. TobinD’Angelo, D. W. Reimann, H. Blade, D.C. Nicholas, J. S. Egan, K. Everstine, L. G. Brown and B. Le. 2013 Food worker experience with and beliefs about working while ill. J. Food Prot. 76:2146-2154.

You think the last place you ate made you sick? Here is what to do.

Posted on November 29, 2018 by admin

Social media can be an excellent source to share information. But when bad information is shared it can unfairly harm a business’s reputation.

I often see posts where someone claims that they became sick or got food poisoning from a restaurant. The problem is most often you did not get sick from the last thing you ate. It just may have been your bodies “tipping point” of when the vomiting and or diarrhea starts.

Take a look at this chart, it lists the top 6 pathogens as identified by the CDC^1.I have included estimated number of cases, transmission, incubation period, duration and symptoms. Although this is just a quick overview of these pathogens it will help you see that each pathogen is different from each other. Remember there are approximately 40 pathogens that can cause illness in humans.

Pathogen	Mean estimated number of cases each year.	How do humans typically get sick.	Onset or incubation period before symptoms appear	Duration of your illness	Symptoms
Norovirus	20 million	Ready to eat foods or by drinking contaminated beverages. Touching a surface and putting your hand in your mouth could also be a source. Only a few cells are necessary to cause illness.	12-48 hours	1-3 days	Diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach pains. Sometimes fever and body aches
Campylobacter	1.3 million	Most illnesses likely occur due to eating raw or undercooked poultry, or to eating something that touched it. Some are due to contaminated water, contact with animals, or drinking raw (unpasteurized) milk. Only a small number of cells is needed to cause illness. A single drop of poultry juice can contain enough cells!	2-5 days	1 week	Diarrhea (often bloody), fever, cramping, nausea, vomiting
Salmonella	1.2 million	Can be found in many foods, including sprouts and other vegetables, eggs, chicken, pork, fruits, and even processed foods, such as nut butters, frozen pot pies, chicken nuggets, and stuffed chicken entrees.	12-72 hours	4-7 days	Diarrhea, fever, cramps
Clostridium Perfringens	1 million	Beef, poultry, gravies, and dried or pre-cooked foods. Especially those left out for too long during cooling.	6-24 hours	24 hours	Diarrhea, cramping, usually there is no fever or vomiting
Shigella	500,000	Found in human feces, so any contact with feces from a person that had shigella can become contaminated very easily, even weeks after they are better. This transmission could happen when changing a sick baby’s diaper, during sex or eating foods that person touched without proper hand-washing. It only takes a small number of cells to cause illness.	1-2 days	5-7 days	Diarrhea, fever, stomach cramping
Staphylococcus Aureus (Staph)	300,000	Ready to eat foods that require refrigeration that have been handled by someone that is a carrier of Staph. 25% of healthy adults are carriers in their nose or infected cuts. Contaminated food is left at unsafe temperatures for too long. Cooking will typically kill the bacteria but sometimes a toxin is formed and those cannot be destroyed.	30 minutes – 6 hours	1 day	Nausea, vomiting, cramps, most have diarrhea but not always.

As you look at the data, you see that the only pathogen that causes illness right after eating is Staph. There are 300,000 estimated cases a year. That is still a large number of people getting sick from improper handling of food, but statistically you are more likely to be ill from another pathogen.

What does this mean?

Do NOT immediately blame the last place you ate and publicly shame them. I am in no way dismissing your illness and how bad you felt. But making false accusations can be very harmful to someone already in a grueling business.

What should you do?

First and foremost, take care of yourself. If you experience symptoms of foodborne illness, such as diarrhea or vomiting, drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration.

Then report the illness, doing so helps alert the health department of a possible outbreak.

They will likely do an investigation including asking you what your exact symptoms are and what foods you ate in at least the last 7 days. They may also ask you go to the doctors to be tested. A doctor is the only sure way that your illness can be diagnosed.

If you don’t feel it is necessary to make a report here is the recommendations from the CDC² of when you should seek medical attention:

High fever (temperature over 101.5°F, measured orally)
Blood in stools
Frequent vomiting that prevents keeping liquids down (which can lead to dehydration)
Signs of dehydration, including a marked decrease in urination, a very dry mouth and throat, or feeling dizzy when standing up.
Diarrhea that lasts more than 3 days

But remember, unless you have the illness diagnosed, understand the incubation period, think of what you ate that is typically associated with that illness during that time period and make a report, please do not blame a restaurant for your illness. Remember, the illness could have come from your own home. Be informed. Be smart.

gov/foodborneburden/pdfs/scallan-estimated-illnesses-foodborne-pathogens.pdf
gov/foodsafety/symptoms.html

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