Goal: You and your partners in investigation are to read the following scenario of a spring picnic and determine what "bug" is making people sick and how it was transferred from food to person. Directions: First read the scenario. Within your group assign the bacterium below to be researched, just indicate on your group thread what you will research: Bacillus cereus Clostridium botulinum Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli 0157:H7 Salmonella spp. Staphylococcus aureus With each bacterium find how it's spread, common foods, symptoms, onset of symptoms, etc. To do this go to the Bad Bugs Book At the end of the site, is a helpful chart summarizing all food borne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins. Another site you should check is the Food Safety and Applied Nutrtion Web site. The BBC Online has an interesting site with several links. You may want to do a search of your own using the bacterium you are researching. After you are familiar with your bacterium reread the scenario and determine if and if so where your organism could be the culprit, jot down some notes as to how, etc. If you determine it is not the culprit, jot down why you think it isn't. You may want to chart possible contaminated foods with individuals who ate the food and individuals who are sick. Share your findings with your group members via group thread and as a group decide which organism(s) is(are) responsible for each individuals malady. Again, you may need to chart out who ate what to determine what foods the "sickies" have in common. Make your thread posting a paragraph summarizing your research, you may reference a web site, but make it your summary of the information, anything that is just pasted from a web site into the thread will not count as discussion. Also, don't overlook the possibility that more than one food is cause the "problems." By the due date, your group should have a final entry that summarizes your research, which organism is making people sick, which food, and how each was chosen, then how each food/bacteria was eliminated. (40 points possible, see below) Be sure to indicate the causative organism(s) for each "sick" person, as well as how you came to this conclusion (10 points) how you think the food(s) were contaminated (10 points) how you eliminated the other organisms and foods (10 points) Your individual Participation ( 10 points, minimum 5 original comments necessary) SCENARIO The Spring Fling At the Home of Heidi Sands It's Wednesday noon and due to spring break, Heidi comes home from school early and starving. Of course, mom and dad are both working and nothing is prepared for lunch, so she runs to the freezer and begins "pawing" through looking for the staple of her diet, frozen Pizza. Finding none, she discovers a packaged of ground beef labeled 2010. Heidi has an idea, how about making her own pizza on French bread, so she grabs the ground beef and frozen bread and heads for the kitchen counter. First she uses a paring knife to pierce the plastic wrap and throws the meat in the microwave for 10 minutes of thawing. While it's thawing she gathers the sauce, cheese, onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc. When the microwave beeps, she pulls out the meat to the cutting board, unwraps it and discovers it's still frozen, so she grabs the paring knife again and slices it into 1 inch slices, separates the slices with her hands then sets it back in the microwave for another 5 minutes. Frustrated and very hungry she grabs a couple of cream-filled doughnuts from the counter and before she gets back to the cutting board has most of one already eaten. Then the microwave beeps so she lays the doughnuts on the cutting board and heads for the microwave when the phone rings and Heidi's friends call to say they want her to meet at the mall and eat Pizza. So Heidi heads to the mall, washing her hands before she leaves. At six that evening Heidi comes home and remembers her hamburger in the microwave, and she suddenly feels very hungry, so she gets it out and begins to separate it with her hands on the cutting board, makes a patty and puts it in the skillet to cook, turns it once after 3 minutes, waits 2 minutes then stabs it with a fork and begins munching on the "rare" burger while she continues making her "pizza" from French bread. At this point, Heidi's mom enters carrying carryout chicken with Heidi's favorite mashed potatoes and gravy. When her mother, Sally, sees what Heidi is doing she's surprised to see Heidi cooking, but not happy seeing her eat a whole hamburger on a fork. Then she notices the hamburger packaging on the cutting board. Sally tells Heidi that that meat has been around for over a year and may be contaminated so she puts it in the garbage disposal and begins to wipe up the cutting board and counter. Heidi drops the last bite from her fork into the garbage disposal as well and retrieves her doughnuts from the cutting board and gulps them down. She then washes her hands and begins to set the table for dinner. Meanwhile her dad, Harold comes home and they all eat the carryout dinner. At dinner Heidi asks her parents for permission to go on a picnic the next day with her friends. Her mom says it's OK, and suggest she take a salad. After dinner, Heidi begins the preparation for the salad she is taking to the picnic tomorrow. First she slices ripe olives on the cleaned cutting board and places them in a plastic bowl, then she washes spinach and lettuce and places this in a bag. She places both in the refrigerator till morning. The next morning, she removes everything from the refrigerator along with some tomatoes packs them with an ice pack in the cooler and heads for Abe's and the picnic. At the picnic Heidi places the lettuce in her imported wooden salad bowl, slices tomatoes on the cleaned cutting board, which she adds along with the olives after which she tosses with purchased Caesar dressing, as she doesn't want to risk Salmonella from raw eggs in homemade dressing. The last thing she does is top it with grated cheese and croutons. At Abe's House On his way home from school, Abe purchases a fully cooked ham and refrigerates it as soon as he arrived home. The next morning he took a knife from the drawer and began cutting the plastic wrapping from the ham. Just as he almost had the wrapping off, he sneezed so quickly he didn't completely turn his head. Concerned he may have sneezed on the ham, he placed the knife on the counter top and washed the ham off thoroughly. Immediately after washing the ham, he covered it with a honey glaze, placed it in the oven and cooked it for 3 hours. As soon as the ham finished baking, Abe picked up the knife from the counter top , where he had left it earlier, and sliced the ham. Just as he finished slicing the ham and placed it in a covered plastic container, Heidi arrived to take him to the picnic. At Carol's House The day before the picnic, Carol went to the grocery store for the ingredients for a rice salad. When she got home from the store, she refrigerated the fresh eggs, peppers, canned pimentos and a new jar of salad dressing. This way the ingredients will all be chilled when she makes the salad the next morning. She then took out 8 eggs, washed them and boiled them for 20 minutes, immediately removed the shells and stored them in an air tight bag in the refrigerator. She also boils rice for supper as they are having stir fry and makes extra for the salad. After dinner that night she put the left over rice in a covered bowl in the refrigerator to cool out. Carol gets up at 7:00 AM on the day of the picnic and sets out the rice for the salad. she then runs down to take a shower and decides she has time to shave her legs. Carol then decides it would be fun to surprise her friends with a new hair color she's been wanting to try, Smoky Haze. By 9, she's back in the kitchen making her salad. She gets out the chilled peppers, washes them, slices them and adds them to the bowl of rice, she then adds the jar of chilled pimentos, gets the eggs out and slices them with a clean knife and adds them to the rice. Finally she gets out the chilled salad dressing and adds it with a dash of Horseradish, salt, and a little vinegar. She stirs everything together puts a lid on it and grabs her coat as Abe and Heidi honk. She runs out and throws her salad into Heidi's cooler and they head for Jack's house. At Jack's Jack stopped off at the grocery store on the way home from school and bought 3 bags of chips to take to the picnic, so when Abe, Carol and Heidi come he just grabs them and runs to the car. Essie and Frank At 8:00 PM. Wednesday evening, Essie uses her custard recipe and mixes the flour, sugar and milk in a sauce pan and heats it while stirring constantly with her wooden spoon. She stops and picks up the wire whisk and beats the egg yolks still frothy. She then adds a little bit of the beaten egg yolks to her milk mixture, stirring with her wooden spoon, finally adding all the egg mixture and stirs till its thickened, adds the vanilla and butter and sets it aside, taking a moment to lick the wooden spoon and put it in the dishwasher. Meanwhile she gets out the pie crust she baked earlier and debates whether or not to make a meringue topping or use whipped cream. Since the current trend among the restaurants in town is to use whipped cream she decides that will be best. She then measures out 3/4 cup of coconut, via the handful method and dumps it into the cooling custard mixture. Realizing her spoon is in the dishwasher she picks up the wire whisk and mixes in the coconut and pours it into the crust. At 11:00 AM, the next morning Frank stops to pick her up and go to the picnic. She takes the pie out of the refrigerator and is surprised to see the milk jug has kept the refrigerator door slightly ajar. After setting the pie on the counter, Essie sets out the whipping cream and a clean bowl and the mixer. She then whips the cream, adds the sugar and vanilla and tops the pie with the whipped cream. She puts some coconut on top, covers the pie and goes with Frank to the picnic. On the way to the picnic they stop at the deli and Frank buys some rolls, a new jar of peanut butter, and a bag of apples and bananas. When they get to the picnic, Essie sets the pie , fruit, and rolls on the table with the paper plates. Bob and Diane After school on Wednesday Bob and Diane drove into the city to a show and had no time for food preparation. Therefore, they stopped at the grocery store on the way to the picnic and Bob bought a quart of baked beans and Diane bought a plate of prepared veggies and a container of dip. They arrived at the picnic the same time as Heidi, Jack and Abe and Carol. Essie and Frank came and the meal began. The Infamous Meal Heidi called everyone to the table at 1:00 PM. As the food is passed, Essie ate chips, rice salad, veggies with dip, rolls and an apple Frank eats Caesar salad, chips with dip, rice salad, ham, beans, and rolls Abe eats Caesar salad, ham, rice, beans, veggies with dip, and a banana Carol eats chips, rice salad, ham, and an apple Bob eats chips ham, rolls with peanut butter, beans, chips, rice salad, and veggies no dip Diane eats Caesar salad, ham, beans, chips and an apple Heidi eats Caesar salad, chips, veggies with dip, ham and a banana Jack eats chips with dip, rice salad, ham and rolls in a sandwich, and beans After everyone has eaten Essie serves her homemade coconut cream pie. She has really gone to a lot of work and made her own custard with eggs then topped it with whipped cream. Those with room enough for pie are Jack, Bob, Diane. About 2:00 PM Heidi begins complaining of stomach cramps and runs to the bathroom with diarrhea. She comes back to the picnic only to rush off to the bathroom again at 2:30 and again at 3:30 this time calling Jack to drive her home. She didn't tell him but she sees blood in the stool. He sees that Heidi is really sick and calls Abe and Carol to help him get her to the car. As he comes to the picnic table, he notices he feels a little nauseous himself and begins to vomit while grabbing his cramping stomach. They take Heidi home and by the time they get her home Jack is vomiting again. Heidi's mom comes out and gives him some pink liquid and puts Heidi to bed and asks her husband to take the kids home. Mr. Sands then takes Abe, Carol and Jack home in Heidi's car. As he drives, he begins questioning them about what they ate and drank at the picnic. They tell him no alcohol was involved and talk about the food everyone brought. Before he gets to Carol's house, Carol begins complaining of an upset stomach and as the car stops she runs to her house and begins vomiting. At the sound of Carol being sick Abe opens the door and begins to get sick as well. Mr. Sands looks around and thinks "now what?" Then the cell phone rings and it's Frank, he's taking Essie home and she's sick and doesn't know what to do, he says she's complaining of abdominal cramps and he had to stop at three gas stations for her to go to the bathroom because she has diarrhea. Mr. Sands is thinking, Heidi's sick, Jack's sick, Abe's vomiting , Carol's sick, now Essie and he wonders about Bob and Diane. So he calls up Diane's mother who says Diane just got home and was fine, but Bob hasn't left yet because he feels a little nauseated and stomach is cramping so she had him lay down. The next day, Mrs. Sands sees Heidi is still sick at her stomach and running a slight fever, and her diarrhea is even bloodier. She calls her husband and they take Heidi to the hospital. On the way she checks on everyone else, and they all are feeling better, no one is hungry but all seem to have stopped vomiting and their abdominal cramping seems to be better. Your Mission What do you think, what food is making everyone sick and what bacteria is present to cause these symptoms. You're the detective figure it out.