Inadequate Cooking and Handling Partly to Blame for
Persistent Salmonella Illnesses in Canada
Over the past 16 months, the Public Health Agency of Canada
(PHAC) has reported that health officials in Canada have identified hundreds of laboratory-confirmed human illnesses associated with frozen raw breaded chicken products contaminated
with Salmonella, due at least in part to inadequate cooking or
handling. During the same period, there were also food recalls issued for
seven different frozen raw breaded chicken products.
PHAC says that the illnesses continue to occur despite warnings and efforts to educate the
public on safe food handling practices. Canadians of all ages are becoming infected with Salmo-
nella because of “consumption of or exposure to improperly cooked frozen raw breaded chicken
To help combat these ongoing illnesses, the government of Canada is partnering with the
food manufacturing industry and food retailers to reduce Salmonella in frozen raw breaded
chicken products produced on or after April 1, 2019, to below detectable amounts, thereby
reducing the risk of illness for everyone who handles or consumes these types of products.
However, until April 1, 2019, and probably for up to a year after this date, frozen raw breaded
chicken products containing Salmonella will continue to be in the marketplace and in freezers
across the country.
USDA Offers Food Safety Tips for Areas Affected by
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection
Service (FSIS) is issuing food safety recommendations for those who may be
impacted by hurricanes this season.
Hurricanes present the possibility of power outages and flooding that can compromise
the safety of stored food. FSIS recommends that consumers take the following steps to reduce food waste and the risk of foodborne illness during severe weather events.
Steps to follow if the power goes out:
• Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. A refrigerator will keep
food cold for about 4 hours if the door is kept closed. A full freezer will hold its tempera-
ture for about 48 hours ( 24 hours if half-full).
• Place meat and poultry to one side of the freezer or on a tray to prevent cross-contamination from thawing juices.
• Use dry or block ice to keep the refrigerator as cold as possible during an extended power
outage. Fifty pounds of dry ice should keep a fully stocked
18-cubic-foot freezer cold for 2 days.
Food safety after a flood:
• Do not eat any food that may have come into contact
with floodwater—this would include raw fruits and
vegetables, cartons of milk, or eggs.
• Discard any food that is not in a waterproof container if there is any chance that it has come into
contact with floodwater.
• Inspect canned foods and discard any food in
damaged cans. Can damage is shown by swelling, leakage, punctures, holes, fractures, extensive
deep rusting, or crushing/denting severe enough to
prevent normal stacking or opening with a manual,
wheel-type can opener.
GHI Issues Call for
The Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI) has
issued a call for abstracts for
the first GHI World Congress on Food Safety and
Security to be held March
24–28, 2019, in Leiden, The
Netherlands. The aim is to
bring together leading scientists, researchers, and research
scholars from academia and
industry, decision makers
from international organizations, and the public from
across the globe to advance
the conversation about the
vital role of modern science in food legislation and
regulation within all relevant
fields—from chemistry and
microbiology to genetic toxicology and genomics—from
farm to fork. For more
Dow Chemical Company
has announced the winners
of the 2018 30th Awards for
Packaging Innovation, which
recognize the packaging
industry’s top achievements
in innovative packaging
designs, materials, technolo-
gies, and processes. Top
honors went to Procter
& Gamble for the
include the Doritos
Crunch Prism Pack
from PepsiCo Frito-
Lay and the KitKat
Celebreak Box from