Spring/Summer 2010 - Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products ...

pathogen patrol
By Peter Muriana
FAPC Food Microbiologist
peter.muriana@okstate.edu
PUBLIC HEALTH
ms in different situations
are separate complaint instructions for
retailers and consumers to report foods
they think may be a problem.
Salmonella Tennessee and
Hydrolyzed Vegetable
Protein (HVP)
The FDA recently disclosed a
product used as a “flavor enhancer”
in numerous food products that was
found with Salmonella contamination.
The types of food items include
dressings, dips, soups, salads, chilli,
hotdogs, stews, gravies, seasoned
snack foods, and many others.
The contaminated product was
manufactured by Basic Food Flavors,
Incorporated, in Las Vegas, Nevada,
and was caught early before any illnesses
were reported.
However, a customer of Basic
Food Flavors identified the presence
of Salmonella in its’ HVP ingredient
during routine testing, and through the
reportable food registry portal, FDA
triggered to test on its own.
Basic Food Flavors began a voluntary
recall on February 26, 2010. In
this instance, it appears as if an indirect
customer identified the contami-
nant in a product, reported it, and was
able to trigger the recall putting the
FDA into action.
Because of the nature of the ingredient
and its widespread use in a
multitude of products, hundreds of
products had to be recalled.
The company is recalling all hydrolyzed
vegetable produce manufactured
from September 2009. However,
there have been no illnesses reported
because of this contamination. Many
of the products or consumer uses involve
the heating of the food products.
Salmonella Montevideo
outbreaks tied to
black and red pepper
Public health officials examined
an outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo
in mid-January 2010 in Rhode Island
of people who consumed Italian-style
meat products, or salami, manufactured
by Daniele International, Incorporated.
It was later identified the suspect
ingredient was black and red pepper,
and additional recalls were tied
to suppliers of this spice, including
Wholesome Spice and Mincing Spice
Overseas Company, as well as other
food manufacturers who used this ingredient.
Outbreaks were seemingly connected
because DNA fingerprinting
isolates Salmonella Montevideo obtained
from clinical cases all demonstrated
similarity in DNA pattern.
Because of the network of health
departments from various states,
together with CDC base system,
PulseNet, as well as FDA and USDA
labs, there was quick identification
possibly linking 252 cases of illnesses
from forty-four states since July 2009
through March 2010.
Without such connectivity and
networking among public health departments
and government agencies,
the magnitude of such outbreaks could
have easily been several orders of
magnitude larger.
The examples cited in
the text demonstrate
the protection of public
health occurs by different
mechanisms in different
situations.
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