Food Safety Talk

Don and Ben welcome first time guest Andrew Clarke to the podcast. Andrew previously made a guest appearance in episode 211, although he sounded like Dark Vader. The show opens with Andrew talking his company, Loblaws. Ben quickly steers the conversation to coffee before everyone gets congratulated for all of their awards. Ben once again talks about fanny floating in his hometown in an effort to explain why he's bad at drink tickets, and he also blames Renee. The food safety talk returns as Andrew talks about GFSI and food safety culture, which morphs into COVID-19 talk, masks and risk reduction for risk both real and imagined. Andrew ends of the show with a tantalizing tea teaser for next time.

The guys start the show talking about electric bikes, foot pain and backyard (and front yard) chickens. The conversation goes to FoodNet statistics and how COVID-19 might impact foodborne illness tracking, reporting and recalls. In the second half of the episode Don and Ben are joined by Gordon Hayburn of Trophy Foods and Andrew Clarke from Loblaws (briefly) to talk about inspections, virtual audits. The show ends on a discussion of Gordon's experiences in managing COVID-19 issues as a food manufacturer.

The show starts with Don asking Ben to help with some questions from a reporter about disinfectant wipes. After a brief digression into bacon maple jam safety, the guys segue to the risks of using fruit ripen or as hand sanitizer, and from there into the risk of re-opening the economy and how to manage them. Don reads from an email message about why Taiwan has not shut down it's economy, and from there recommends a new podcast, while Ben recommends a Netflix show. They both recommend the recent SNL cold open with Brad Pitt as Dr. Anthony Fauci. Ben talks about his chickens, while Don talks about loose sheep. The discussion turns to the risk of COVID-19 in food processing plants and from wet markets, and the origin of SARS-CoV-2. After a brief chat about biosafety labs and the risks of accidental release, Ben asked Don about the recent $25 million fine of chipotle before the guys wrap up the show.

The show starts with some French Canadian references, cousin talk and Belgium TV shows (at least one). The guys talk a bit about code switching, and Ben's rewatching of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (even the bad ones). They then talk about how COVID-19 is affecting essential employees, and what that means for the food industry and supply. Ben and Don talk about what they think about pausing inspections and go into a deep dive about a blip in recalls. The discussion shifts to chicken liver pate and forcemeats. The show ends with the guys talking about Adam Schlesinger and John Prine.

This episode was recorded on Wednesday, Mar 4th, 2020 after Don and Ben had just returned from what they now know was their last two trips before everything was COVID-19 cancelled. Since they have more fresh corona-content to deliver, posting of this episode got preempted, but now that things are more corona-normal, they're getting around to getting this one out. The show starts with the usual nonsense before the guys begin to talk about PPE. Food safety related topics that are discussed include Campylobacter, contaminated Brazilian beer, as well as the food safety effects of essential oils, bulk soaps, shopping bags, and everybody's old favorite virus, norovirus. The show dips back into pop culture right at the end as well.

This episode was recorded in February, back before stay-at-home orders, school closures and the recognition of a global pandemic. We ended up recording a couple more episodes after this that we put up because of timeliness. This one is a bit of a mess with interruptions and edits, sorry. In this episode Don and Ben deal with dog sounds, talk about British comedy shows and other things they are watching. The guys then talk about a guest pitch from someone not named Ray Romano. The guys do a deep dive on ghost kitchens and the challenges regulating them. They then talk about issues related to using consumer food purchase data to help with outbreak investigations. No deliberation, just conversation. The guys talk about how they consume news, where they stay up to date on food safety and other things. The episode ends on some feedback on free venison.

Don and Ben get together for their second podcast during peak pandemic. There's lots of TV talk at the beginning, since Ben is watching lots of TV with his kids. Ben also talks about other stuff he's doing with his family like playing board games. From there the guys transition to the work that they've been doing in response to the pandemic, including Don's adventures with a viral tweet, and how Ben falls victime to an April Fools prank. They both talk about the challenges posed by risk communication in the pandemic. At the end of the podcast Ben pivots to conventional food safety, and the guys discuss a really interesting Listeria outbreak that's going on with Enoki mushrooms.

This very special Coronavirus/COVID-19 episode starts with some beverage foley and talk shifts to technology that the guys are using to communicate in their somewhat new remote workflow. Ben and Don talk about what's in the Coronavirus literature that impacts food safety questions, about COVID-19 in poop, and lessons learned from the Diamond Princess. They talk through some of the online conversations they are having including soap and sanitizing efficacy. Both Don and Ben talk about their grocery shopping experiences in social distancing and episode ends on DIY hand sanitizer recipes.

Don and Ben open the episode with some productivity and technology talk before segueing into fake conferences and more talk about Ben's new research kitchens. Don asks Ben for his advice on sous vide cooking. Don provides a update on his visit to Chipotle HQ (spoiler alert, he's a fan now). The discussion moves to leafy green safety before Don wraps up with the story of another visit, this time to Tailor Cut Produce.

Don and Ben start the episode talking about Apple watches, screen time and untethering from an iPhone. They then talk about Canadian names, or names that seem particularly Canadian to Ben at least. The real food safety talk starts with a deep dive on cheese safety. Don and Ben talk storage temperatures, explore hoop cheese and discuss Ben's go-to cheese safety paper from Rusty Bishop. The discussion goes into a texas botulism outbreak, old McDonalds hamburgers and frozen food cooking instructions. The episode ends on revisiting the food safety issues related to steaming (and not steaming) oysters. Oh and rent-a-duck.

The show opens with the discussion of construction near Ben's office, followed by a brief digression into what the guys are watching on TV. The talk about food safety begins with how one might prepare ancient Mesopotamia dishes. Then the guys talk in detail about a cut fruit outbreak that occurred at the end of 2019 caused by a small company near Rutgers University. There is a brief discussion of cleaning dishes and washing fresh produce before the guys talk about the YouTube star of Grandpa's Kitchen before a deep dive into sous vide. From there the discussion moves to a problematic inspection of Friendly's ice cream manufacturing. The closes with listener feedback from Twitter as well as Don's brief moment of fame as his five second rule research appears a preachers blog post. The guys also announce their new hit podcast “Risky or Not”, for more details go to RiskyOrNot.co.

Don and Ben start the show with a bit of movie and TV show talk, mainly chatting about old favorites. They get into the food safety content with the safety of old fruitcakes and then go to outbreaks and pseudo outbreaks. They talk water, frozen foods, The Onion and do a deep dive on farmers' markets. The guys talk about a Forbes article on food safety performance and the the data behind it (and the data that was ignored). The end the show on Irish creches.

We recorded this episode live in Louisville Kentucky at a Rapid Response Teams program meeting. Unfortunately there was a significant problem with recording the audio for this episode. Evidence suggests (listen carefully at the beginning of the repording) that the audio engineers recorded the room audio, instead of the input from our microphones. Thanks to some Herculean efforts by our friends from the Internet we are able to bring you this relatively listenable version of podcast. Apologies in advance for the quality, but this was such a special episode and the rapid response team folks were so supportive and helpful, we just couldn't not put this one out.

Don and Ben start the episode talking about kimchi fermentation and all the cabbage that needed to be washed and salted. The conversation went towards collaborations with fun people that might seem a bit unnatural to outsiders. The guys talk about a few outbreaks including two pathogenic E. coli ones linked to Romaine lettuce and Hep A in blackberries. They then do some listener feedback on foreign objects, bad cleaning and sanitizing machines and chitterlings. Also, bacteria is everywhere. Food safety recalls are always either too early or too late. If you're right, it's always too late. If you're wrong, it's always too early. - Dr. Paul Mead

Today the guys are joined by special guest Rachael Jackson from the Eat Or Toss website. Rachel talks about how she got started doing her website, and the guys chime in with how some of their favorite extension questions have been answered on the site. From there the discussion turns to food waste in general, and some of the initiatives and activities all three have been involved with on the topic. Rachel asks a question about the risks of centrally located composting drop-off locations, before an interesting digression on how composting might influence food waste. Rachel asks about leftover food safety recommendations, as well as some very old molasses and kombucha. Ben is sure he knows why the recommendation for leftovers is 3 to 5 days in the fridge, but Don is sure it's not that scientific. In after-dark, Ben proves Don is wrong.