foodlogic

FDA Warns Consumers Not To Drink Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice Due to Botulism Concerns

In response to a fourth case of botulism being linked to Bolthouse Farms, Bakersfield, California brand carrot juice, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to drink Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice, 450 ml and 1 liter plastic bottles, with "BEST IF USED BY" dates of NOV 11 2006 or earlier. Consumers should discard this product. FDA is also reiterating its advice to consumers to keep carrot juice — including pasteurized carrot juice — refrigerated.

Not pasteurized? What did we think? Food contaminated with soil was (and is) one of the most dangerous things.

The fourth case of botulism poisoning involves an adult female in Florida who is currently suffering from paralysis. To date, one link between the illness and the consumers appears to be that the juice they drank was not properly refrigerated once it was in the home, which allowed the Clostridium botulinum spores to grow and produce toxin. FDA is investigating other possible links.

And what if the juice was not refrigerated properly in the place of production?
Then of course the home refrigeration will not help.

Pasteurize! (Or buy carrots, wash them properly and make juice at home. It's more tasty than the pasteurized version and more safe than the juice bought in the shop.)

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The Food Standard Agency has concluded an assessment of the evidence provided by the University of Glasgow, on the nutritional differences between organic and non-organic milk.

The result was maybe not the best for organic milk producers:

[...]organic milk consumed in volumes consistent with a healthy diet, would not provide sufficient amounts of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids to provide significant health benefits, over and above those associated with conventional milk

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More than 100 persons have fallen ill in recent days and one died after eating raw spinach contaminated with the O157:H7 strain of E. coli, according to FDA officials. A second death, of a person in Ohio, was being studied to see if it also was linked to the outbreak.

Scientists said that no amount of rinsing or careful handling can keep the E. coli out of salads and other foods in which raw vegetables are used if the pathogen is in, rather than on, plant leaves. It also poses new challenges for farmers seeking to ensure that their crops remain free of the contaminant.

Scientists at Rutgers University reported four years ago that they had shown that quantities of the bacteria sufficient to cause disease can be present in - rather than on - the plants' leaves.

You can't wash the organism away from the crop. Even if it's washed several times, you're not actually washing away the organism.

said Karl Matthews, a microbiologist.

After growing lettuce in soil that had been deliberately inoculated with E. coli O157:H7, Matthews washed the leaves in bleach but still found the bacteria inside the plant tissues. (Source)

My findings on pathogens on/in vegetables is that washing them with cold water decreases the microbial count with one order of magnitude. Washing with hot water causes a decrease of two orders of magnitude, approximately.

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