GERMS & HEALTH: Federal and state health officials found the bacterium Listeria in Gourmet Boutique’s meat products during routine checks. Across the Atlantic, a microbiologist found staph, E. coli, and other bacteria on computer keyboards and mouses in a London office.

Gourmet Boutique pulled 286,000 pounds of its contaminated meat products off the shelves yesterday and says it is taking steps to correct the problem. No one has reported any illness from Gourmet’s products. Similarly, no one has blamed illness on their computer equipment in the London office where a microbiologist found a keyboard with five times the number of bacteria as the office toilet seat.

Wrapanini Gets a Bad Rap

Gourmet Boutique, based in Jamaica, N.Y., voluntarily recalled 286,000 pounds of its fresh and frozen meat products nationwide yesterday. USDA food safety and Florida agricultural inspectors found the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes in some of Gourmet Boutique’s products during routine random testing.

Listeria symptoms include high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, and nausea. The bacteria may cause fatal infections in people with depressed immune systems. No one has reported an illness related to consuming Gourmet Boutique products at this time.

The products are sold under the Gourmet Boutique brand, as well as Jan’s and Archer Farms. They include fresh salads and sandwiches, and frozen wraps and burritos.

Gourmet Boutique’s recall hotline said in a recorded message that the company had corrected the problem and taken actions to prevent the contamination in the future.

Forget Your Toilet—Clean Your Keyboard

Computer keyboards and mouses can harbor bacteria such as E. coli and staph, and help spread viruses such as the flu bug.

A British consumer advocacy group, Which?, hired microbiologist James Francis to find out how sanitary its computer equipment was in the group's London office. After swabbing 33 computer keyboards, one toilet seat, and several doorknobs, Francis found one keyboard posed a serious health risk. It contained five times the number of germs as the toilet seat.

Two other keyboards had staphylococcus aureus, and another two had coliforms and enterobacteria. Francis said his findings were consistent with other office settings.

In the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blamed a stomach flu outbreak at an elementary school in Washington, D.C., in February 2007 on contaminated computer equipment. It found a keyboard and mouse in a first-grade classroom that tested positive for the norovirus. More than 100 people got sick from the virus.

Copyright © 2009 Informify

Sources

"NYC food maker recalls over 286,000 pounds of meat, poultry " (AP)

"Meat That May Contain Fatal Germ Is Recalled " (Bloomberg News)

"MYour Keyboard: Dirtier Than a Toilet " (ABC News)

"Scientists order filthy keyboard 'condemned'" (Tasmania Mercury)

Question for Readers:

Do you think humans are more susceptible to bacterial infections now because of our use of antibiotics and antibacterial soaps?