Gord Downie of the incomparable Tragically Hip (Getty Images)

Food Safety Talk 203: Never Met a Gord I Didn't Like

Added on February 17, 2020 by Ben Chapman.

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.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 202: We Are All Waiting for the Return

Added on February 1, 2020 by Don Schaffner.

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.

Food Safety Talk 201: CDC Says It Was You

Added on January 2, 2020 by Ben Chapman.

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.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 200: Room Audio

Added on December 16, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

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.

Food Safety Talk 199: Possum Droppers

Added on November 27, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

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

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 198: Very Old Molasses (with Rachael Jackson)

Added on November 11, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

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.

Food Safety Talk 197: 51 years of food safety (recorded live in Sun Valley, ID)

Added on October 25, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben record a live show at the Intermountain section of IFT. The guys do a deep retrospective of the types of food safety publications that were being published in the summer of ‘69 and talk Clostridium perfringens, grocery store food safety, public health infrastructure, flour and almonds. Polio makes a surprise appearance. They get into some predictions for the future of food safety and take audience questions on the hygiene hypothesis and over sanitizing food processing environments.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 196: Superintendent of Judges

Added on October 17, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with a discussion of the television program Letterkenny before Ben talks about his recent experiences cooking turkeys for Canadian Thanksgiving. That's only a warm-up, because Ben has a lot of information to share about his recent experiences serving as a Superintendent of Judges for a variety of competitions at the North Carolina State fair. This story has it all: real food safety, perceived food safety, risk communication and risk management. Next, the guys handle listener feedback and talk about safe cooking temperatures for wild game, and why they might not be science-based. Other feedback includes a great idea for celebrating Halloween if you have food allergies. although neither host is an expert on chemical food safety or toxicology, that does not stop them from handling a whole host of questions on micro plastics, food plastics in general, as well as mercury and arsenic risks. Listener feedback ends with a question on the availability of food safety classes for the general public.

Food Safety Talk 195: Three Wok Podcast

Added on October 7, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben start talking about Letterkenny, a Canadian classic, and then do a deep dive on farmers' markets and the nuances of regulations, cottage foods and managing food safety in parking lots. The guys then talk about grocery store openings and exactly how to use a thermometer. They end the show on a bunch of listener feedback including what food grade means, eating off of books, clickbait food safety articles and spiking foods with meth.

Show notes to follow along at home:

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Food Safety Talk 194: Eight Days of Poop

Added on September 25, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

This is a special live episode recorded at the Refrigerated Foods Association Fall Symposium at Rutgers University. Ben and Don talk to a room full of food industry professionals, most of whom are not regular listeners to Food Safety Talk. As usual the live episode opens with a survey regarding podcasts and how much the audience knows about them. After Don briefly corrects Ben regarding the correct meaning of the word "random", Ben wants to talk about knives made out of poop, and why one might study them. After that the guys talk about food insufficiency and why people might choose to eat roadkill. They do a bit of interesting listener feedback regarding food safety risks relative to jumping off a one-story building before opening it up to questions from the audience. Audience questions relate to barf blog, the safety of sushi, and the realities of working in an actual restaurant kitchen.

Dashiell Parr from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash_Parr

Food Safety Talk 193: E dash Coli

Added on September 16, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben start the show with a listener question about the safety of cooking already dead lobsters, which leads into some personal stories about bad seafood (and good seafood, like those Des Moines scallops). The guys then tackle a bunch of listener feedback related to internalization of pathogens in produce, pancake shooters and a follow-up of last episode's boil water advisory excitement. The episode ends with a discussion of the safety of canning recipes found online (and how to sneak some lemon juice into canned tomatoes).

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 192: Foot Safety Talk

Added on September 7, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with some hurricane safety talk, but quickly moves to discussion of an email that Ben recently received relating to some microbiological tests on water and hypothetically related illnesses. The guys do a deep dive on communicating risk in the midst of uncertainty. Listener feedback focuses on fake whiskey, standards for foreign objects in food, refrigerator temperature monitoring, toxicology of recyclable bowls, the volume of hot air hand dryers, food safety culture, and the risks posed by hotels and airports.

Food Safety Talk 191: Make KABOBs with Gordon

Added on August 27, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben are joined by friend Gordon Hayburn, dog judge and VP food safety and quality at Trophy Foods. The guys talk dogs, monorchids and online food discussions. They go on to talk about plant-based meat alternatives, is chicken really chicken and the fallout and management of food fraud. The episode ended on how food safety culture gets implemented and a discussion of kebab, er, KABOB, making.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 190: Once My Taste Went Weird (with Daniel Jalkut)

Added on August 15, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

Today the guys were joined by software developer Daniel Jalkut for a wide ranging discussion on food safety including whether the inside leaves of a head of lettuce need to be washed, whether something can ever be 100% safe, the importance of Mann's Assumption, how what people see in the grocery store informs their perception of food safety, the risks of microorganisms on the outside of food packages, food safety culture, the risks from reheated rice, and a fascinating and deep dive into pine mouth and its causes. The show ends with a discussion about the possibilities of reconditioning a wooden cutting board of unknown origins.

Charles Eakins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj8vBJWJlxI)

Food Safety Talk 189: Guerrilla Sous Vide Is A Go (Live from Renton Technical College)

Added on August 12, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben recorded a live show at Renton Technical College in Renton WA. Thanks to the Washington State Department of Health for the invite. The show starts with Don and Ben talking about getting into podcasting, goes to a discussion on beer kegs being stored in restrooms and then to some listener feedback on delivery service foods. The guys then talk about recent New York Times coverage of an outbreak of Salmonella linked to pork that occurred in WA in 2015. Listener questions go to curing, the safety of vacuum packaging seafood, lemonade stands and cottage food laws. There's an every popular playing of would you rather and the episode ends with the guys being introduced to hotel room sous vide and the Searzall.

The audio has a bit of a hum, sorry about that.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 188: Cook a Pizza With a Pizza

Added on August 2, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with the guys talking about the recent IAFP meeting, as well as the usual assorted miscellanea. Ben wants to talk about when to discard cutting boards, what to do about a broken wrist watch, and a food worker with MRSA. From their the guys clear out all of the backlog of listener feedback, including storage of fancy candied cherries, a recent article flies, E. coli, feedlots and produce, the risks of sous vide, other podcasts about food safety, the risks posed by leaving foods out-of-doors, cooking "en papillote", high-tech sensors for food shelf life, the risks of fecal transplants, the risks of salt in your rice, the potential for bacteria to evolve heat resistance, FDA bashing by the far right, monitoring your refrigerator and freezer in the case of a power outage, and old-fashioned and newfangled ways of measuring vibrio risk from shellfish. Somewhere in all of that they also talk about the title topic.

If you're in the greater Seattle area on Tuesday, August 6 2019, and you want to attend a free live recording, please join the guys at 7pm on Tuesday, in Blencoe Auditorium on the Renton Technical College campus, Renton, WA 98056.

Food Safety Talk 187: Must Split and Toast

Added on July 30, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben do their annual live from IAFP show. This year, from the dungeons of the Kentucky International Convention Center, the guys are joined by listeners coming from as far at New Zealand. The show starts with a discussion of IAFP meeting happenings, symposia and back room chatter. The discussion goes to some listener feedback on Chipotle, English muffins, donut walls and ignoring voluntary recall guidance. And papayas. A few in-studio listeners then join Don and Ben at the mic and ask questions (and get asked questions).

Show notes so you can follow at home:

Food Safety Talk 186: This is a free snake!

Added on July 4, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with Don asking Ben to buy him some gift cards. Ben is having a holiday party, and the guys spend a little bit of time talking about the media they are watching before the talk turns to food safety. Listener feedback leads to a discussion of the risks posed by the traditional method of making Chinese master sauce, which foods pose an increased risk of harboring Listeria, appropriate labeling advice for doggy bags, and the safety of multiple component foods being left out of temperature control. Ben livens things up with a discussion based on an interesting reddit post, as well as a question about which months are safe for consuming raw shellfish. The guys mention two recent restaurants they visited before a brief dip back into music and media, and conclude with plugs for their live shows at IAFP and in Seattle.

Food Safety Talk 185: Hot Diapers

Added on June 19, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben are joined by friend, listener and co-host of Do By Friday, Max Temkin. The show starts when Don surprises Ben with our special guest. Max brings the guys a bunch of great food safety questions about tomato paste and the nuances of expiration dates, sous vide, jerky and grinding your own meat. They talk about frozen berries, what triggers recalls and what they look for in a company or industry that is doing good food safety things. The episode ends on a story on how Cards Against Humanity became a food processor (sort of).

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake

Food Safety Talk 184: Pull Your Pork Properly

Added on June 5, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with some brief news about the recent Apple keynote. From there the discussion turns to books about food safety and Don's recent travels. Then the guys jump right into listener feedback talking about fictional petfood safety, food fraud, school gardens, cooking pasta inside a cheese wheel, using pressure cookers to sterilize microbiological media, conservative views on food safety and the FDA, electrolyzed water as a cleaning agent, the role of lawyers in the food safety system, and inexpensive high-quality folding microscope, FDA's upcoming frozen berries sampling assignment, the safety of expired foods, water temperature for handwashing, bacterial transmission from splashing water and insects, and quaternary ammonium compounds and cotton cloths. Ben wraps things up with his discussion about making a video that combines his love of hockey and food safety, as well as his recent adventures at the CSTE meeting.