Author: Tony Coveny, Ph.D

Time to Clean out the Fridge After a hectic few weeks, it’s shocking opening the refrigerator door and discovering all the mysterious molds and funky odors. Although the danger zone is 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, microbial growth still occurs in the fridge, slowly but surely. Foodborne pathogens like Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli grow fastest in the danger zone—think of foodborne illnesses causing bacterial growth on foods like summertime picnic potato salads or that tuna salad sandwich that sat out in your car for a few hours. These foodborne pathogens also can proliferate in cooler temperatures, just at a…

Publix announces salmon recall A company based in St Petersburg, Florida, has recalled a sockeye salmon product because it may be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. The recall of Biltmore Smoked Sockeye Salmon, announced on the Publix corporate website, was initiated by Seven Seas International LLC USA after routine regulatory testing conducted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services discovered listeria monocytogenes may be present in some of the salmon product. Although the recall is not detailed on either the Seven Seas International website or the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services website, Publix announced the salmon recall…

Listeria found in sample of Mecox Sunrise cheese Cheese that was distributed and sold at seven retail locations and one restaurant on Eastern Long Island, New York, and that was served at one restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, has been recalled after a sample was found to be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. The New York State Agriculture and Markets Division of Milk Control found listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Mecox Sunrise cheese during routine testing. The company that produces the cheese, Mecox Bay Dairy, LLC, based in Bridgehampton, New York, recalled its Mecox Sunrise washed-rind Tomme style cheese after the…

How to Properly Sanitize Counter Tops: Preventing Food Borne Illness Starts in the Kitchen After handling food, it is important to make sure countertops are thoroughly sanitized, especially if you were preparing raw meats or items possibly containing high amounts of bacteria like raw sprouts or uncooked eggs. Proper sanitation is key to lowering your risks of contaminating the food with potentially harmful foodborne pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli. Because complete sterilization is difficult to obtain, the goal is to reduce the number of disease causing pathogens by 99.99 percent. Sanitizing is the process of reducing microbial counts on…

Sinks Can Carry Deadly Bacteria: Clean Sinks Daily The first things I learned about food safety from someone other than my mom was at school. A professional chef to come to my school to teach our class some basic knife skills and other food handling techniques. The most valuable thing he taught us was not how to make delicious spring rolls, but how to properly sanitize a kitchen before preparing food. Whenever you are going to be preparing food, you need to start with a clean, empty sink. Interestingly, the kitchen sink harbors more bacteria than most places in your…

Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, 2018 Report The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) reports preliminary data reviewing the annual incidences and trends in foodborne illness. In the 2018 report, FoodNet reported to the CDC data for infections caused by Campylobacter, Cyclospora, Listeria, Salmonella, Escherichia coli (STEC), Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia. The Key Findings of the Report: FoodNet identified 25,606 cases of infection, 5,893 hospitalizations, and 120 deaths At 19.5 percent of all FoodNet’s identified foodborne infections last year, most incidences of infection were caused by Campylobacter. o    Salmonella caused 18.3 percent o    Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC)…

Endotoxins: foods contaminated with endotoxin-producing gram-positive pathogens Why Should You Avoid Leaving Leftovers Out? Why do you need to avoid consuming foods that were in the “danger zone” for too long even if you plan on thoroughly reheating? Foods left in the “danger zone” (an ideal range of temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit where bacteria can double in population every twenty minutes) for over two hours should not be consumed, for foodborne illness-causing pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella can produce enough endotoxins in that time to make you ill if ingested. Endotoxins are heat stable, so you cannot…

3 Types of Food Borne Hazards Biological agents are typically the cause of foodborne illnesses, but in fact, there are three categories of hazards responsible for causing foodborne illnesses. They are the following: biological, chemical, and physical. The first of the 3 Types of Food Borne Hazards are the biological hazards: Bacteria, viruses, prions, and parasites are agents responsible for causing foodborne illnesses. According to the CDC, norovirus causes “58% of foodborne illnesses acquired in the United States” (CDC).  The CDC also estimates that Salmonella “causes about 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths in the United States every…

Ground Beef and E. coli – Not all E. coli is Equal Why does ground beef get recalled for E. coli contamination? E. coli is ubiquitous and mostly harmless. An infection from Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia Coli (STEC), on the other hand, can be potentially fatal, for the illnesses associated with a STEC infection include hemorrhagic colitis and kidney failure. STEC produce harmful Shiga toxins which only negatively affect organisms containing highly specific receptors for the toxin. Interestingly, cattle do not suffer the same effects as humans because cattle do not have the specific receptors. To prevent e. coli contamination, when…

Mercury Poisoning in Fish: Most Sources of Mercury No longer a Threat  Before scientists fully understood the toxicity of mercury, many people suffered the harmful effects of mercury exposure. Mercury was in thermometers, cosmetics, paints,  and,  believe it or not, used for hat making! What folks at the time did not understand was how little mercury is needed to cause health problems. Today, mercury is not in our thermometers (and we have the Weather Channel app), not in our Burt’s Bee lip balm, not in most new paint on the market, or used in hat making; however, it is in our…