Posts Tagged ‘ Salmonella ’

Contaminated Chicken – Not a Paltry Affair

December 7th, 2009. By LucyC

Here’s some rather unappetizing news—just in time for the holiday season. The results of a study that will be published in the upcoming edition of Consumer Reports, were being floated around the Internet last week, results which show that two thirds of store bought chickens are contaminated with pathogens that could make you very ill.

Apparently we should be grateful for this statistic, because it is markedly better than that of two years ago when eight out of 10 chickens were found to be contaminated with bacteria, including salmonella and campylobacter. (Even the names sound awful.)

As most of us are no doubt aware by now given the seemingly endless number of food recalls, salmonella, campylobacter, E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes, to name the more common pathogens, can make us seriously ill. Food poisoning is the collective and rather vague term for the litany of physical ailments that includes vomiting, diarrhea, kidney failure, paralysis, seizures, hearing and visual impairment, and mental retardation. Worse, people have been known to die from food poisoning. Goodness knows it sure feels like death is imminent when have it. 

Back to the study. The folks at ConsumerReports.org hired an independent lab to test 382 chickens that were purchased in the spring from over 100 supermarkets. Those stores included Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: campylobacter, chicken, Food Illness, Salmonella
Posted in Emerging Issues, Food Illness | No Comments »

Pet Turtles, Salmonella and the Ban No One Knows About

October 30th, 2009. By Hunter West

There’s a ban on small pet turtles? 

Really? 

Okay, so the ban is only on pet turtles less than four inches in diameter. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enacted the ban after reports surfaced that children were putting the cute little things in their mouths. However, it wasn’t a choking hazard that seemed to drive the ban. 

No, it was the fact that children became sick after coming into contact with their pet turtle in such an intimate fashion. 

Sick with salmonella from turtles.  

Turtles carry salmonella, it seems—originating in their feces, according to a recent MSNBC report. So children, by placing the baby turtles in their mouths, were coming into direct contact with salmonella. 

So they were banned 34 years ago. 

Just the small ones, mind you. In 1975.

Oh, you didn’t know either? Join the club. Few consumers know about the ban—and fewer vendors appear to be enforcing the ban, or complying with it. According to MSNBC small turtles Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FDA, Salmonella, Turtles
Posted in Food Illness, Personal Injury | 1 Comment »