By the Numbers
—According to a study published in the September issue of the International Journal of Cancer, childhood and adult milk consumption can protect against breast cancer. The study, conducted using 48,844 women in Norway, sugested that women drinking more than three glasses of milk per day had half the risk of breast cancer compared to women not drinking milk. Moreover, it showed that milk consumption during childhood can reduce the risk of breast cancer among women aged 34 to 39. Milk’s protective effect can reportedly be attributed to the cancer-fighting substance conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in milk fat. A recent Finnish study, for example, suggested that postmenopausal women with the lowest levels of CLA in their diet and in their blood had, respectively, a 3.3-fold and five-fold greater risk of breast cancer than those with the highest levels of CLA.
—According to a team of British scientists from the University of Southampton, E. coli O157 is able to survive for more than 30 days on stainless steel, but that when placed on a copper surface, the virus was unable to survive for more than four hours at room temperature. Additional testing showed that if cooled to a typical chill temperature of 39°F (4°C), the virus lived 14 hours. The University of Southampton researchers were working as part of an international drive to develop the bacteria-killing properties of copper.
—According to data published recently in the Journal of Food Protection, the Food Safefy Inspection Service’s testing on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products has shown a significant decline in the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes. The data was collected over a nine-year period at 1,800 federally inspected meat and poultry facilities. In addition to Listeria products also were tested for the presence of Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcal enterotoxins, each of which also showed a downward trend.
—According to a study appearing in the Journal of Food Protection: Vol. 64, No. 10, heated scallop-shell powder (CaO) was found to reduce the aerobic bacteria count in cabbage, with increasing effectiveness at higher powder concentrations and treatment temperatures. Researchers at Japan’s Kanagawa Institute of Technology found, after studying various powder concentrations, that coliforms were completely eliminated within 5 min with as little as 0.1 g dm3 powder treatment. During storage at 4°C, aerobic bacterial counts did not increase after powder treatment, whereas counts increased with water-washing or sodium hypochlorite treatment at 200 g dm3.