Quick bites from around the food safety arena this week
- Commercial refrigeration systems have been targeted across Europe in multiple cybersecurity attacks. Remote access to the systems has been exploited to change the temperature or turn off the units, leading to food spoilage. It is not yet clear who is behind the attacks, but the EU Parliament recently held a debate on how to strengthen cyber defenses to protect critical infrastructure and supply chains from attack.
- One person has died in an outbreak of E. coli O157 linked to Brookshire Farms in San Luis Obispo County, CA. The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported the victim was an 18-month-old girl. County officials had earlier confirmed five cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in people who had visited Brookshire Farms in mid-October. Another 10 cases of illness are counted as suspect cases. An investigation was unable to identify the source of the pathogen.
- Australia’s Food Safety Information Council reports that it estimates one in six Australians are consuming raw cows’ milk despite it being illegal to sell as food. Council CEO Lydia Buchtmann urged people not to consume raw milk in order to help reduce the estimated 4.67 million cases of food poisoning recorded each year in Australia.
- A team of government researchers reports that the United States has made “none to very slight” progress toward foodborne illness reduction targets. According to the most recent data available, there has been no change in the incidence of salmonellosis, but there have been increases in listeriosis, campylobacteriosis and E. coli infection.
- Detection of cereulide, a toxin produced by certain strains of Bacillus cereus, prompted large-scale recalls of infant formula in Europe earlier this year. At a meeting to identify ways to improve response to future occurrences, crisis coordinators for food and food safety supported setting a limit on cereulide in infant formula and requiring manufacturers to test for it. They also called for better communication about traceability of contaminated batches of formula.
Today’s Topic: Bird Flu
H5N1 avian flu has taken another human life, but only the third since Feb. 8, 2022, when ongoing outbreaks of “bird flu” became frequent in poultry and U.S. dairy cows. That has led to sporadic human cases among dairy and poultry workers.
Since it began, 74 total reported human cases of A(H5) bird flu have been reported in the United States, with the non-fatal cases recovering.