Bill Marler on the Listeria outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meats

my name is Bill maror I'm a food safety lawyer uh based on Bayridge Island Washington and uh the publisher of food safety news the CDC uh and the USDA have announced that there are now 34 people sickened um all of those folks have been hospitalized there have been two deaths one in Illinois and one in New Jersey um it's impacted 13 States all sort of west of the Mississippi it's been linked to bores Head meat um they have had a positive leria sample in some liver worst which was one of the six different kinds of products that have been recalled um they they have not announced Public Health has not announced whether that or not that uh positive sample from the food product is a genetic match to the 20 excuse me 34 people who've been sickened uh but you know uh it's certainly that's going to be the presumption the process uh whether it's leria or eoli or salmonella um you know when somebody's sick leria people are so sick they're usually hospitalized and they're getting either uh positive culture out of their blood or sometimes out of their spinal fluid because leria caus uh in humans uh will cause cause menitis which is the the big risk and why you know so many people are sickened and why unfortunately you know some people die all of these uh tests that are positive for leria have gone through a process called whole genome sequencing so the leria it's been found in the blood that's been found in the spinal fluid all 34 of these people have the exactly the same leria and that really tells you that they ate a product and what's gets a little funny in these uh cases uh involving deli meat and you'll you will also see recently that some delies have shut down and you know they're doing a deep cleaning because when that bores Head meat comes into the deli you know it's got it's contaminated with leria it can spread to other food products in that Deli counter so yeah that's that's the other sometimes it's a confounding issue sometimes in these Deli cases where you know some people eat cheese some people eat you know brw some people eat ham and so there doesn't seem to be a common denominator um because there's cross-contamination in the deli counter here at least uh the common denominator appears to be there was Bor head product in a lot of these delies and people recalled consuming it and now they have a positive samples so you know and frankly I would expect that that sample is going to be positive and be a genetic match but frankly even if it's not it doesn't mean that it's not the borsh head product that caused people to get sick um you the one sort of frightening thing about leria is it has an incubation period so between ingestion and onset of illness from three to 70 days so even though we're now knowing about this outbreak that's really only been occurring in the last couple of months you know people who consumed that before the recall was announced unfortunately kind of have to wait and see and so I think the public needs to be really aware especially if you're you know suffering aches and pains and headaches you know get to the hospital as quickly as possible we don't have a lot of detail about the people who were hospitalized we know that that two people have died um that's not necessarily uncommon usually you see about 10 to 15% of all culture positive cases in leria outbreaks are deaths um generally speaking to it's essentially 100% are hospitalized um there's also a number of people who have less severe illnesses that might have a diarrheal illness or you know stomach cramps and whatnot for a week or so they very seldom get tested uh they're not sick enough to go to the hospital um stool cultures for leria are not that great but you know if you get a you know a fulminant infection that gets into your bloodstream gets into your spinal column that's when they are testing so you're the number of people who are sick with leria is probably about 10 times the number that we're actually being uh told by the CDC and that's because the people who the other people who are sick that other 10 times are people who had a diarrheal illness that didn't Advance you know to a fulminate infection if you bought meat from a dely counter anywhere that had B's Head meat in it um it's a good idea just to you know throw it out there's a good adage in the business where when in doubt throw it out and um you know I just I frankly wouldn't take the risk unless you want to you know cook it thoroughly um obviously the you know not consuming the uh the bores Head meat that's been recalled is certainly important also too you know uh you know it's a good idea to clean you know your refrigerator in the areas that you may have had deli meat and it's a good idea to do that you know sort of every you know once every often simply because leria is really the only bacteria uh that causes human disease that grows really well at refrigerator temperatures so most of the issues you see with leria are in cool wet environments you know you see it happen with cheese you see it happen with ice cream and deli meat and lettuce those are areas where leria can you know create a little space and they grow really well at temperatures that sort of the growth of other deadly pathogens like ecoli and salmonella so leria is you know really problematic in sort of the ready to eat uh food products and you know it can cause you know extensive outbreaks very sever outbreaks um you know I was a consultant in uh South Africa on the largest leria outbreak that sickened over a thousand and killed 200 linked to a deli meat product uh produced in South Africa so you know these things you know can be you know pretty concerning and pretty deadly one of the things that uh you know to prevent future outbreaks is to you know ramp up your testing on uh food contact surfaces um you know cleaning equipment you know Deli slicers um you know uh equipment that is producing ice cream or the the the belts where lettuce is being being processed you know leria can get into little crevices into this machinery and if not clean properly um they create a bofilm that bofilm will Slough off every once in a while and that leral will get into the product and so you know thoroughly cleaning equipment making sure the kind of equipment you have is cleanable and thoroughly cleanable testing food contact surfaces you know testing your your plant to make sure leria isn't being harbored there but you know once leria gets into a plant it's really difficult to you know to get rid of um and so that's why you know thorough cleaning thorough testing is important you know in Delhi delhi's um you know uh you know everybody likes to go to Delhi everybody likes to get their fresh you know meat cut and things like that it's really important that you know those Deli counters in your grocery store in Deli or wherever they are you know that they you know thoroughly clean those Deli cases and their slicers and to pay attention to detail um for consumers you know it's one of those things where um you know leria is a really deadly pathogen and if you're you're very young you're you know you're elderly you're pregnant um you may think twice about you know uh enjoying that liver worst sandwich which