Toronto, Canada — Canadian moms earn top marks when it comes to good hygiene practices, but a new study by Lysol and the Global Hygiene Council reveals they could do more to safeguard against bacteria hotspots in schools, especially at lunch time.

The 2012 Lysol Back to School Study surveyed 14,000 mothers of five- to 12-year-olds across 14 countries, including 1,000 Canadians. Eighty-eight per cent of Canadian mothers said they teach their child good hygiene practices, such as hand washing after using the washroom and coughing into the sleeve. However, only 53 per cent said their children are made to wash their hands before eating lunch.

“The survey results reveal that parents need to continue to educate their kids about the importance of proper hygiene – particularly before mealtime,” said Erica Di Ruggiero, Chair of the Canadian Public Health Association. “Thorough and regular hand washing with soap and warm water, and encouraging kids to not put food directly on their desk or cafeteria table can help to protect children against many illnesses.”

Improper storage of packed lunches can also cause foodborne illness. Less than half (43 per cent) of Canadian moms said they refrigerate their child’s lunch after preparation. Improper food storage puts kids at an increased risk of coming into contact with bacteria such as Ecoli and salmonella, which could cause serious illness and force kids to stay home from school. Considering 35 per cent of Canadian moms said doing well academically is their biggest worry when their child goes back to school, these findings may be especially significant.

Lunches may also become contaminated from improper disinfection habits at home. Only 45 per cent of mothers said they clean and disinfect their child’s lunch box daily, increasing the opportunity for bacteria to grow and foodborne illness to occur.

“A lunch box is supposed to keep kids’ food safe, but in some cases, the lunch box can do the exact opposite,” said Dr. Donald Low, Microbiologist in Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital. “If lunch boxes are not cleaned daily, small spills and crumbs can lead to bacteria growth and spread to ready-to-eat food, potentially causing children to get food poisoning or sick with diarrhea.”

Parents should also teach kids about the importance of proper hygiene while eating lunch at school. In a second part of the Lysol Back to School Study, seven elementary schools in the United States were swabbed for bacteria to detect levels of contamination. Results showed that 44 per cent of eating areas were contaminated. In contrast, the level of contamination in the washrooms was surprisingly low (3 per cent), which is likely due to more vigilant cleaning regimes in school bathrooms.

The Global Hygiene Council offers the following tips for guarding against germs at school this fall:

Hand washing

• Get your child into the habit of washing his/her hands regularly, particularly after visiting the washroom and before eating, both at home and at school. Remind your child to wash his/her hands before opening their lunch box.

Surface disinfection

• Teach your child to wipe off the desk or cafeteria table with disinfectant wipes before eating lunch. This will decrease the chances of your child ingesting harmful bacteria from commonly-touched surfaces, which are more likely to be contaminated.
• Be aware that moist environments, like the water fountain, can harbor germs.

Hygienic food preparation and storage

• Disinfect your child’s lunch box every day with disposable disinfectant wipes, and rinse with warm water.
• Wash raw fruit, salad and vegetables thoroughly before packing them in your child’s lunch.
• Freshly prepare food each day. There is less of an opportunity for germs to grow, the shorter the amount of time that food is stored.
• Refrigerate your child’s lunch box after preparation, and consider using a freezer pack or cool bag to help keep your child’s lunch chilled.

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Back in August 2010, after a salmonella outbreak spread across the nation, there was an egg recall of 550 million eggs. Newly released records during a civil lawsuit underway in a Federal Court in California show the owner of the egg company involved knew the hens were contaminated with salmonella months before the recall.

According to the Associated Press, the egg mogul Jack DeCoster and his companies asked Iowa State University’s Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory to test for salmonella back in January 2010. The company was preparing for federal rules set to take effect in July which required mandatory testing for the bacteria at different stages of production. In January 2010, testing began by collecting samples from DeCoster’s plants.

ISU scientist Darrell Trampel wrote in an email, “If SE is in the livers of the laying hens, it is almost certainly in the eggs at this site,” calling it “a very interesting finding.”

In April, ISU’s Veterinary Diagnostics Lab found traces of salmonella in manure at several Iowa egg-laying plants and internal organs of birds, which were dying at unusually high rates. The scientist found that 43 percent of the poultry houses tested positive for salmonella.

The third-party laboratory released its records due to a subpoena from NuCal Foods, a California company suing DeCoster and his companies in federal court. NuCal bought some of the tainted eggs and later had to recall them, being faced with lawsuits from customers who got sick and lost profit after the salmonella outbreak.

“Our role is to provide a third-party quality assured diagnostic service, and it’s up to the client to interpret the information,” said the lab’s operation director, Roger Main, whose 125-employee lab receives $3.2 million in Iowa tax dollars and conducts about 1 million tests every year.

The laboratory reported the findings of salmonella to the egg producer who requested the test alone, and say as a third-party they had no legal or ethical obligation to alert regulators or consumers.

The FDA now requires producers that find salmonella in the product to conduct more tests and destroy the bacteria or change the course of the contaminated eggs to non-food use.

According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit against DeCoster and his companies argues that they “did not initiate egg tests or salmonella decontamination” knowing they were not quality while continuing to sell the products. The lawsuit says the defendants hid the filthy conditions at their farms so that they could continue to profit.

DeCoster gave up control of the Iowa based egg company in 2011, releasing this statement to the Associated Press, “While we are committed to working to address outstanding issues related to the outbreak, it is important to note we no longer operate any of the farms involved and are no longer in the business of egg production.”

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A second recall of Cargill Meat Solutions Corp’s turkey ground meat has been issued after extensive testing has found the meat to be contaminated with salmonella bacteria. This has been the second recall from the company in less than six weeks, with the first recall being one of the largest meat recalls in history, affecting 36 million pounds of ground meat turkey.

One person in California died following the last outbreak and over 76 fell ill. Only 2 million of the 36 million pounds of meat was retrieved and buried in a landfill. This recall is of a much smaller proportion, affecting 185,000 pounds of ground turkey meat. The contaminated meat was produced at the company’s plant in Springdale, Arkansas between August 23 and 24 and 30 and 31.

The plant was shut down for a week and reopened on August 10th after extensive cleaning and U.S. Department of Agriculture review. Former Food and Drug Administration food safety chief David Acheson says there are two possible explanations for the continuing contaminations.

Either the problem could be the initial source of the turkeys or it is possible that the cleanup in between recalls was inadequate. He stated “Salmonella can be living in a drain or on a mop or on the walls or in an air vent, so it can recolonize.” Cargill spokesman, Mike Martin, declared that the source isn’t the same as last time, and the company hasn’t yet traced the source of the contamination.

He also claims the latest incident was based on a single positive sample taken by USDA. Martin says the recall “underscores the challenges and frustrations associated with managing naturally and randomly occurring bacteria which exist throughout our environment.” Salmonellosis occurs after consuming food contaminated with salmonella and is one of the most common bacterial food-borne illnesses.

Salmonellosis can be fatal, particularly to those with weak immune systems, such as the elderly, small children, and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy. Salmonella symptoms appear within 6 to 72 hours and usually lasts four to seven days. Common side-affects includes fever, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and nausea.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that roughly 76 million people in the United States suffer food-borne illnesses yearly, 300,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die. Children under the age of 4 are sickened by food illnesses more than those in any other age group, but adults over the age of 50 are more likely to be hospitalized and have the illness become fatal.

To prevent the possibility of getting salmonellosis the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends meat be cooked at a the temperature that kills bacteria, 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The products subject to recall today bear the establishment number “P-963″ inside the USDA mark of inspection.

To find out more about which products are subject to recall, go to United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service.

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Salmonella is a zoonotic bacterium, one that can be transferred from nonhuman to human species, which can cause severe infection to people. The disease gives those infected fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea which can last up to a week. It can often be found in contaminated food, such as eggs and nutmeg in the past, and now, in peanut butter, too.

Famous peanut butter Skippy manufacturer Unilever has issued a press release Friday that recalls its “Reduced Fat Creamy” and “Reduced Fat Super Chunk” brands because of a suspected Salmonella contamination.  The recall was released to 16 states, mostly in the east and south regions, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

According to the press release, the contaminated products are sold in 16.3-ounce jars and have best-before dates of May 16-21, 2012 written on the lid.

Unilever did not specify the cause of contamination, the degree of severity nor any clean-up processes being or planned to be conducted in its manufacturing equipment. The press release only stated that the contamination was declared after the inspectors’ “routine sampling.”

Although there are no recorded cases of diseases yet, this should serve as a big caveat to all consumers. We must always be aware of the condition of products in the market, of what we intend to buy, even those names we have learned to trust.

At least, Unilever guaranteed people replacement coupons. Buyers who have the said product specifications above must immediately throw away their jar and contact the company at 1-800-453-3432 for a new, uncontaminated jar.

Further, people who seems to have the symptoms of Salmonella infection, or even those who have just consumed the recalled products must also contact the company. They are advised to talk to a doctor immediately.

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