Two Dozen Now Sickened in AK Raw Milk Campylobacter Outbreak

The number of people sickened with Campylobacter infections linked to raw milk in Alaska has now risen from 18 to 24, reported health officials this week, according to news channel KTVA 11.

Two patients have been hospitalized as a result of their infections, according to the Alaska Section of Epidemiology (SOE).  One of the victims is an infant who contracted a secondary infection, and did not drink the raw milk directly.

The bacteria has been traced to a cow share program on the Kenai Peninsula.

The milk was distributed to shareholders throughout the Kenai Peninsula, in Anchorage, and in Sitka, according to a February 22 press release from the SOE.

The last Campylobacter outbreak traced to raw milk in Alaska was in 2011. A total of 18 people were sickened from that milk, also produced by a cow share program.

Source: Food Safety Net

UK: Sharia Halal Board backs British meat

The Sharia Halal Board has backed the British meat industry in the wake of the horsemeat scandal and claimed the problem was not British.

It stated it believed British meat is of “extremely high standard, supreme quality with rigorous hygiene standards” and that such a level “cannot be achieved or received anywhere else but the United Kingdom”.

The Sharia Halal Board therefore strongly recommended that butchers focus on local British produce and immediately stop buying from outside the UK.

“This will ensure that you are providing product that has pedigree, quality and traceability that your customers can trust,” it claimed.

Spokesperson Allama Qazi Abdul Aziz Chishti, said: “The Sharia Halal Board believes completely in traceability with transparency. This can only truly be achieved by buying from and the monitoring of British halal suppliers. We announce today that the Sharia Halal Board fully endorses and supports British-produced halal meat.”

Many of the Sharia Halal Board’s abattoirs are part of the Red Tractor assurance scheme, which guarantees quality, standards, welfare and hygiene.

Qazi stated: “This is even more important with regards to halal meat. This is the only meat that must and can truly be fully monitored and traced back to its origin. Therefore all halal meat suppliers should only buy British halal meat.”

Sharia Halal Board-monitored meat will become available in certain places from the start of April 2013 and will be featured throughout the UK by the end of 2013, it added.

Source: Meat Info

Industry Test Results on Beef Products Published – Update from FSA (UK)

UNITED KINGDOM – The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has received the third set of test results from the food industry, which has been checking for the presence of horse DNA in products that are labelled as beef.

Overall, including the previous weeks’ testing, the Agency has received 5430 test results. The updated information from the food industry’s own tests is as follows:

• As in previous weeks, the vast majority (over 99%) of tests continue to show no horse DNA at or above the level of 1%.
• Results show that four further products have been confirmed as containing horse DNA, since the previous set of industry results was announced last week. These four products are covered by 10 test results that show horse DNA at or above the 1% threshold. These products are named in the attached report (see Table 1) and have been withdrawn from sale.
• There are now 17 products confirmed as containing over 1% of horse DNA, which have been identified through the industry tests (Table 1). A further two products have been identified through separate tests (Table 2).
• To date, no tests of products containing horse DNA have found the veterinary medicine phenylbutazone (bute).

The FSA focus continues to be on gross contamination of beef products with horse meat, that is, where there is more than 1% horse DNA detected in a product. The Agency believes that such levels of horse DNA indicate either gross negligence or deliberate substitution of one meat for another.

Results have now been received from a range of manufacturers, retailers, caterers, restaurants and wholesalers throughout the UK. The initial phase of testing by industry is almost complete.

There have been, and continue to be, occasions where businesses have withdrawn products due to trace contamination levels, or on a precautionary basis; for example, where they have been produced by manufacturers that have supplied other products found to be contaminated with horse DNA.

Table 1

Third report on results of industry testing of meat products 1 March 2013: products linked to positive results for horse
Company	Linked products
ALDI	Today’s special frozen beef lasagne Today’s special frozen spaghetti bolognese
ASDA	Chilled Beef Bolognese Sauce
Bird’s Eye*	Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese Beef lasagne
Brakes*	Brakes spicy minced beef skewer
Co-operative	Frozen: 4 Beef Quarter Pounder Burgers
Findus	Findus beef lasagne (320g, 360g, 500g)
Rangeland	Burger products
Sodexo	Halal beef burgers, minced beef, halal minced beef
Taco Bell*	Ground beef
Tesco	Everyday Value frozen burgers Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese
Whitbread Group plc	Lasagne, beef burger

*Results added since the second report on 22 February 2013. All products have been subject to product withdrawal and appropriate notification to customers and consumers.

Table 2

Other products that contain horse DNA above 1% Company Linked products   Makro Frozen MQ 100% Aberdeen Angus Beef Burgers 12 6oz   The Burger Manufacturing Company (BMC) A range of beef products