I have warned most of my friends and family about the potential hazards of eating sushi when it comes to pathogen introduction. With sushi’s popularity and health benefits compared to some other food choices, one must be very careful in their selection based on quality, type, cleanliness of the preparation, temperature of the product, etc. According to the CDC, as of today, there are at least 141 people ill from Salmonella in 20 states; at least 21 have been hospitalized.

The multi-state outbreak has been traced back to a frozen yellow fin tuna processing plant in India. The California based distribution company has recalled all of the frozen tuna from the processor. The frozen tuna was sold to outlets that make sushi and sell it to restaurants and grocery stores. The FDA is reporting that it is difficult for the restaurants and grocery store chains to trace back to this distributor, as the larger boxes were broken down into smaller lots; some even vacuum-wrapped with no further labeling.

As I have stated many times before, our food supply is becoming more and more global every day. Approximately over 60% of produce in the U.S. is from outside the country. The need to ensure food safety without the use of harmful chemicals is higher than ever. Electronic Cold-Pasteurization (ECP) can offer this extra “kill step” that would lead to less illnesses and fewer deaths.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Starn's Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.