Listeria causing trouble in CanadaCanadian health authorities are reporting a death toll of 12 people related to an outbreak of Listeria in “ready to eat” meat – bologna, turkey and ham - lunch meat. Infection with Listeria (called Listeriosis) is especially dangerous for pregnant women, newborns. the elderly and anyone with a chronic medical condition. Canadian health authorities are reporting a death toll of 12 people related to an outbreak of Listeria in “ready to eat” meat – bologna, turkey and ham - lunch meat. Infection with Listeria (called Listeriosis) is especially dangerous for pregnant women, newborns. the elderly and anyone with a chronic medical condition. Foodborne outbreaks of Listeria are quite a challenge to investigate because the incubation period (the time between ingestion of the contaminated food and the onset of symptoms) can be as long as 90 days. People can become ill up to 3 months after eating contaminated meat. To add to the problem, the contaminated meat can look, taste and smell normal so you won’t have a clue that Listeria is there and your usual “tests” will fail you (like sniffing and looking for discoloration or mold). Symptoms of Listeriosis include fever, headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. What can appear to be a minor flu-like illness is not usually a big deal for normal healthy adults. However, it can cause very serious disease in a pregnant mother and her unborn child and also in a baby. The Canadian outbreak has been traced to one meat-processing plant in Toronto - Maple Leaf Foods. They have not yet determined how the contamination occurred but apparently, none of their other 22 processing plants in Canada has Listeria. The Listeria nanobug. Listeria monocytogenes, is personified as a baby mostly because it is a tiny gram-positive rod when viewed under the microscope. And also because it causes so much trouble for pregnant moms and babies. The one-liner for this pathogenic nanobug disguised as an innocent little baby is: “I’m not a fool, I grow where it is cool”. Normally, we think that food stored in the cool environment of the refrigerator is safe. The best technique that we can employ to prevent foodborne Listeriosis is to heat processed meats to kill the nanobugs. At home that means zapping it in the microwave and in restaurants, order the hot sub sandwiches that they run through those little heat tunnels. Don’t send lunchmeat sandwiches in the kids’ lunch bag to be held at room temp all morning - bad idea – it can encourage the growth of all kinds of foodborne nanobugs. Listeria can contaminate more than just lunch meat. Soft cheeses support the growth of Listeria in the “ripening” process and have caused outbreaks in the past.
This entry was posted on August 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am. RSS
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