Only last week we wrote about Cryptosporidium outbreaks in petting zoos, but now there seems to be a lot of it in Connemara and Cork.Irish Water has identified Cryptosporidium contamination in the public water supply and has issued ten thousand homes and businesses in Cork with boil water notices over fears of contaminated drinking water. The state [...]
Lambs are cute. Especially when covered in mint sauce. But they also harbour some pretty nasty germs. Studies in the USA have attributed 14% of some of the most serious infections to animal contact - including Campylobacter spp. (the most common foodborne bacterial infection in the UK) , Cryptosporidium spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157, non-O157 [...]
Researchers have discovered that the potentially deadly foodborne bacteria Salmonella uses its food as a GPS system.The bug can sense if it’s in the gut or elsewhere in the body based on sensing a substance found in our cell membranes, which is also a nutrient it consumes. It then uses that information to determine whether it should be [...]
A plan to impose tougher penalties on restaurants, cafes and takeaways infested with pests is good news for diners, according to a national trade body. Business owners found guilty of food safety offences could now face much bigger fines or even jail terms following the introduction of new sentencing guidelines.The British Pest Control Association (BPCA) [...]
A group of Wisconsin’s federal lawmakers have requested the US Food and Drug Administration look again at recent standards intended to limit the level of non-toxigenic E. coli allowed in raw milk cheese. 'Raw' milk - or to give it its proper scientific name, sewage - is milk that has not been pasteurised. While cheese carries a lower risk of foodborne [...]
The owner of a Chinese restaurant in Leeds city centre has been fined for filthy kitchen conditions. Lai Hong Cheong, director of OBM on New York Street, pleaded guilty to five food hygiene offences at Leeds Magistrates Court earlier this week. She was ordered to pay £5,000 after the court heard the restaurant had posed [...]
Is duck safe when cooked medium-rare? Not according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) it isn’t. As the FSA continues to focus on Campylobacter – the UK’s leading bacterial cause of food poisoning – last week they reiterated their advice that all poultry should be cooked through, and even duck cannot be safely eaten medium-rare. Recent studies have [...]
DEFRA announced an outbreak of Avian Flu north-east of Preston on Friday and have just confirmed the strain is a highly-pathogenic H7N7. We saw an outbreak in February this year of a low-path H7N7 avian influenza in Hampshire but this new outbreak is far more serious - for birds. The risk of it causing human disease is incredibly low. In [...]
If you are visiting America, make sure you only eat deep-fried food. In the last few weeks one person has died and a further 248 remain sick after a Salmonella outbreak in North Carolina - at a restaurant that got a 98% 'A' grade in a recent food inspection. The CDC is investigating another, multi-resistant Salmonella outbreak [...]
Detergent wet wipes used to clean hospital wards are helping spread deadly superbugs, a new study has revealed. The study discovered that not only were all the wipes tested incredibly poor at removing dangerous pathogenic bacteria, but also that in ‘every instance’ the wet wipes actually spread the superbugs from one surface to another. The [...]