|
Range of foods adds to risk Source of
Article: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/619921 Apr 17, 2009 04:30 AM
The
food industry's reliance on ingredients imported from numerous locations can
complicate epidemiological investigations, as in the case of the 2002
shigella outbreak, a new report on food-borne illnesses in Toronto says. The
outbreak of shigella, a highly contagious bacteria normally spread through
poor hygiene, such as failure to wash hands, was suspected to be linked to a
Greek-style pasta salad manufactured in Toronto by Tiffany Gate Foods. The
outbreak made more than 600 people in Ontario seriously ill with bloody
diarrhea. The
public health report says the movement of food from the farm to the kitchen
table has grown "increasingly complex.'' Our everyday diet has evolved
from one centred around seasonal and local foods to an "immense range''
of food available as a result of the "globalization'' of the food
industry. "The
movement of food and its components increases the risk of food-borne illness
because of the greater number of points at which contaminants can enter the
food production process,'' the report says. A
series of tests after the shigella outbreak, that studied the DNA of bacteria
found in hundreds of salad and stool samples taken at Tiffany Gate Foods,
came back negative. There was no sign of the shigella bacteria at the plant,
in its pasta salad, or in its employees. Shigella
bacteria are known to cause illness at low doses, so only 10 or 15 cells
would be needed to make a person very sick. By the time the outbreak was
suspected to have come from Tiffany Gate salad, those few bacteria may have
died off, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency spokesperson argued at the time. A
class-action suit launched by around 550 people who got sick – mostly in the
GTA and Ottawa – was settled last year. Complainants were compensated
depending on how long they suffered. For example, people sick between two to
four weeks received between $5,000 and $8,000. Tiffany
Gate did not admit liability. The
public health report lists the globalization of the food supply as the
"critical food safety issue'' behind three outbreaks in the city: Twenty-nine
cases of cyclosporiasis in 1998, linked to contaminated raspberries from
Guatemala. Sixteen
cyclosporiasis cases in 2005 linked to pasta salad containing contaminated
basil from Central America. Two
cases of botulism in 2006 stemming from the consumption of contaminated
unpasteurized carrot juice distributed across North America. |
Copyright (C) All rights reserved under FoodHACCP.com
If you have any comments, please send your email to
info@foodhaccp.com
