June, 2024

Articles This Month

1. Training Opportunities

2. Licensing Updates 

3. 100 Years of Milk & Dairy Safety

4. Connected Community

5. Investigation of Illnesses: Diamond Shruumz-Brand Chocolate Bars, Cones, & Gummies

6. Employee Health and Hygiene 

7. MEHA Memberships

Webinars - EHFS webinars are for state and local health officials, sanitarians maintaining CEs, and partner organizations only.

Internships – August, Date and Time TBD: EHFS will be hosting a webinar to discuss internship opportunities in environmental health. We will also be going over funding opportunities specific to internships.

Other Opportunities

DPHHS Summer Institute: This year, Summer Institute will be hosted in-person in Helena at the Delta Hotel from July 15^th-19^th and hosted virtually from July 22^nd-25^th. Virtual registration is $75 and gives you access to session recordings. In-person registration is $200 and includes the virtual conference. Registration closes July 8^th. EHFS will be hosting sessions on the body art rule update, mobile food units, cottage food/the Montana Local Food Choice Act, licensing, environmental health history, and temporary camping and youth camp plan reviews. Please see the Summer Institute website for more information including a full agenda.

If you have questions related to upcoming trainings or would like to be added to the Training Announcement List, please contact Karenna at Karenna.Doctor@mt.gov.

-Karenna

It is DPHHS's fiscal year-end, and we can no longer accept new applications for the 2023 license year. The fiscal year cutoff date is 6-30-2024. We will still be reactivating 2024 licenses, with county approval, until October 18, 2024.

Please be sure to sign your cottage food registration applications and use the approved product list with new cottage food applications.

Thanks,

-Gail

Recently I took an FDA course at the Ohio State University concerning food processing and technology. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot about types of food manufacturing equipment and processes including batch agitating retorts, ozonation, hammer mills, and high-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization systems.

Specifically, when it comes to pasteurization, the FDA is currently celebrating 100 Years of Milk & Dairy Safety. Originating with the Standard Milk Ordinance in 1924, this regulation significantly reduced the risk for foodborne illness in dairy products. Check out the timeline here: FDA Celebrates 100 Years of Milk and Dairy Safety We thank our friends and colleagues at the Montana Department of Livestock for their work in inspecting meat, eggs, and milk here in Montana and celebrate this 100-year anniversary of public health and food safety. -Kira

EHFS is planning on phasing out the Sanitarian Resource page over the next year and replacing it with Connected Community. Connected Community is a platform for Montana Public Health Professionals to connect and collaborate. Registration is free and can be done on the Connected Community website. This platform will allow us to post documents and links for sanitarian use only. It also has integrated discussion posts, announcement threads, and event features.

Kayla Chipongian, the Operations Specialist with Confluence, will be joining the July EHFS Conference Call on July 9^th at 9AM to give us an overview of the Connected Community platform.

-Karenna

The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with America’s Poison Centers and state and local partners continue to investigate the illnesses tied to all products of the Diamond Shruumz microdosing brand.

People who became ill after eating Diamond Shruumz-brand products reported a variety of severe symptoms including seizures, central nervous system depression (loss of consciousness, confusion, sleepiness), agitation, abnormal heart rates, hyper/hypotension, nausea, and vomiting. There has been one connected case in Montana.

FDA has been in contact with the firm about a possible voluntary recall, but these discussions are still ongoing.

A retailer list was obtained by this office. See below for a list of retailers in Montana provided by the firm. In addition to in-person retailers, these products were also sold online.  

DPHHS issued a press release on June 13^th urging Montanans to not consume, sell, or serve Diamond Shruumz-brand products.

DPHHS Urges Consumers to Discard and Not Purchase Diamond Shruumz-Brand Products (mt.gov)

The most up to date information on the investigation can be found here: Investigation of Illnesses: Diamond Shruumz-Brand Chocolate Bars, Cones, & Gummies (June 2024) | FDA

As a reminder, if your office receives any complaints or potential cases linked to these products, please contact Environmental Health and Food Safety.

-Kira

According to a study done by the CDC, 68% of foodborne illness outbreaks are associated with food prepared in restaurants, and that food handling by a sick employee is the most common cause of these restaurant-associated outbreaks (Gould, Rosenblum, Nicholas, Phan, & Jones, 2013). The CDC and the FDA attribute employee health and hygiene as the leading cause of food borne illness outbreaks in the United States.

While the numbers and facts may or may not be alarming, the good news is, we can help! Before becoming a registered sanitarian, if the term “employee health and hygiene” crossed your mind you’d likely chalk it up to washing your hands, pulling your hair back, wearing clean clothes, etc.... Yes, all these things are important but how often did you think about actual illnesses?  My answer…. never!

I think of sanitarians as educators. We spend a lot of time educating the public. Talking about illnesses and symptoms can be a hard topic to gain depth on during an inspection. Understanding the food code requirements regarding health and hygiene feels nearly impossible yet is so important. (Number one cause of foodborne illness...um yes!) We know time is limited during inspections, so how can we ensure we are providing enough information on a topic so pivotal in food safety? My “go to” is the 2020 version of the FDA Employee Health and Hygiene Handbook. Revised in 2020, the new handbook is full of tables, charts, and decision trees. The visual guides are easy to follow and breakdown the information enough that operators can refer to it as a quick reference. Showing an operator the tables and decision trees in the handbook and leaving them a copy is one way to accomplish more in less time. Hard copies of the handbook are available for free (15 copies/day) at CFSAN Education Resource Library | FDA [fda.gov]. -Jenna

The Montana Environmental Health Association (MEHA) invites you to become a member this year!

MEHA is member-led and member-informed. The MEHA Board and membership ensure that Montana has both high standards of professional performance and an informed state-level policy and partnership voice for registered sanitarians.

MEHA membership benefits include:

• Regular environmental health policy calls to keep membership informed and get membership input. Right now, MEHA is working on licensed establishment fee increases. More info – click here.
• A monthly newsletter with membership highlights and professional development opportunities.
• A discount at the annual Confluence conference, which includes 20+ hours of continuing education, networking, and membership recognition.
• Scholarships to attend the statewide Confluence and national NEHA conferences.
• Click here for additional MEHA Membership Benefits and Testimonials.

Membership is $50 or $25 if you are a student.

Questions? Contact meha@cphamt.org or any MEHA board member: https://www.confluencepha.org/meha

Contact Information

EHFS Staff Listing

EHFS | Phone: (406) 444-2837 | Fax: (406) 444-5055

hhsfcs@mt.gov | Environmental Health and Food Safety Section