Doug Powell: Home gardening tips

For those who are ambitious and have a vegetable garden, a video from Doug Powell at KSU:

AP: FDA still searching

DeLauro to FDA: Act immediately

On farm controls is what one influential member of Congress wants. More from Rep. Rosa DeLauro, in advance of a food safety hearing:

 As the salmonella outbreak investigation moves into its third month Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt questioning the focus of HHS, including the Food and Drug Administration, to strengthening the food safety system.  DeLauro, in advance of holding a food safety hearing, also requested a meeting with Secretary Leavitt to get an update on the action items in the letter, as well as to discuss efforts to prevent illnesses like the current salmonella outbreak and respond when problems happen.

 

“The on-going outbreak of illness associated with Salmonella in tomatoes, and possibly other produce, demonstrates again the failure of your Department to carry through on your spoken commitment to food safety.  I would like to meet with you to discuss your Department’s efforts in dealing with the repeated food-borne illness outbreaks,” DeLauro writes in the letter.”

 

“We have in place no federal requirement for on-farm preventive controls and enforceable standards to ensure the safety of fresh produce, despite the produce industry itself calling on FDA to establish them,” continued DeLauro. “I call on you to act immediately to address these problems.”

 

Below is the text of the letter.

 

July 2, 2008

 

The Honorable Michael Leavitt

Secretary

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington , DC   20201

 

Dear Secretary Leavitt:

 

The on-going outbreak of illness associated with Salmonella in tomatoes, and possibly other produce, demonstrates again the failure of your Department to carry through on your spoken commitment to food safety.  I would like to meet with you to discuss your Department’s efforts in dealing with the repeated food-borne illness outbreaks.

 

The FDA Food Protection Plan that you issued with fanfare last December contained some good ideas for making our food safety system more effective at both preventing problems like we’re seeing today with Salmonella and responding to problems when they do occur.  To this day, however, and even as you release a progress report on your food protection plan, your Department has made no discernible progress in implementing the plan, or even outlining in actionable detail the timelines and resources that will be required.

 

The consequences of your failure to act on food safety are severe.  We have in place no federal requirement for on-farm preventive controls and enforceable standards to ensure the safety of fresh produce, despite the produce industry itself calling on FDA to establish them.  And CDC and FDA continue to struggle with inadequate tools and inadequate resources for prompt and efficient tracebacks and epidemiological investigations of outbreaks. 

 

I call on you to act immediately to address these problems in the following ways: (1) direct FDA to begin the rulemaking process to establish preventive control requirements and other appropriate on-farm standards for produce safety, (2) summon the food industry to work collaboratively with FDA and CDC to devise an effective solution to prompt traceback of foods to their source that harnesses the best in available technology and innovation in supply chain management, and (3) produce a detailed plan, with timelines and resource needs, for implementing FDA’s Food Protection Plan, including the changes and resources needed to enhance the critical roles of state and local agencies in investigating outbreaks.

 

The public demands and deserves action to protect the safety of the food supply.  As Congress considers sweeping modernization of FDA’s food safety authorities, it is incumbent on HHS to use the tools at its disposable and provide leadership to meet the public’s expectations.  Towards this end, I intend to hold a future oversight hearing and welcome the opportunity to sit down with you.

 

                                                            Sincerely,

 

 

                                                            Rosa L. DeLauro

                                                            Member of Congress

 

Truck rate report - July 1

Not much change in truck rates this week. From the USDA's truck rate report on July 1:

A shortage of trucks was reported for the following commodities and regions: melons from Georgia and South Carolina, and sweet potatoes from Eastern North Carolina. A slight shortage of trucks was reported for the following commodities and regions: potatoes from San Luis Valley Colorado, Upper Valley Twin Falls-Burley District Idaho and Columbia Basin Washington and corn from South Georgia. Upper Valley, Twin Falls-Burley District Idaho noted a shortage to northeastern destinations with a slight shortage to all other destinations for potatoes. LAST REPORT was issued for corn from South Georgia and watermelons from South Texas. FIRST REPORT was issued for melons from Texas.All other districts reported an adequate supply of trucks.

John Galt, Howard Beale & Me

In novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand’s 1957 magnum opus ‘Atlas Shrugged’, the theme of the epic describes a collapse of society from state intervention run amok. The story ends with the heroic character John Galt creating an alternative economic society out of the ashes, with reason & responsibility as cornerstones.

I was reminded of this great book when faced with the latest blurbs from the media outlets describing the cryptic quotes & faux-analysis from the FDA and, to a certain extent, the CDC.

It’s tomatoes…maybe. Or now it could be salsa, guacamole, cilantro or wash water. Here, or there. Or both places. Or neither. But tomatoes aren’t off the hook yet, according to David Acheson of the FDA. And, incredibly, he states that ”It would be irresponsible of us at this point to say where we are expanding the testing.”

Irresponsible?! For once, Acheson has made an accurate statement. That’s their expertise, you know---the FDA takes no responsibility for its actions, knowing full well that they can throw a morsel to the media blowhole, chiefly the broadcast media because nobody reads anymore, anyway. And the public takes the sanitized fodder on Good Morning America as gospel, steering clear of anything they seem to hear on TV that might make them sick. It’s the 1976 film ‘Network’ come to life.

‘It’s not our fault, we’re not to blame, we’re underfunded’, the FDA cries. Yet there were stories from last year of the FDA doling out more than $8 million in bonuses to workers so they won’t defect to pharmaceutical & other regulated industries. That’s bound to be under intense scrutiny now.

And Consumers Union isn’t helping the situation by saying “If FedEX can keep track of all its packages moving around the country, the produce industry should be able to do the same.” That’s a bad analogy at best, with a chaser of abject ignorance of the situation at hand.

It was Saturday night, June 7, when I received word that Subway was conducting an emergency meeting to pull tomatoes from their sandwiches. That’s when I knew the jig was up, and now it’s Day 25 of the tomato industry held hostage. This has completely crushed the South Carolina, Arkansas and California F.O.B. tomato markets to date, and has left really smart people in the tomato business at a loss for words. I didn’t think that was possible.

Later,

Jay

Western Growers: collateral damage cannot go unchallenged

To this point, Western Growers has taken the most forceful approach to the damage caused by FDA's meandering investigation. From Western Growers on June 28:

IRVINE, CA (June 28, 2008)- Western Growers is urging the House Committee on Agriculture to hold hearings as soon as possible on the salmonella outbreak that has been associated with fresh, red round, roma and plum tomatoes.

FDA and CDC have been unable to definitively determine the source or the cause of this outbreak and while these issues remain a "mystery," tomato growers across the nation are suffering irreparable harm.

"Congress must investigate this matter and determine ways to avoid this in the future and make the innocent tomato growers, packers and shippers whole" said Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers."

"FDA’s comments to the media earlier today do not leave us confident that a progressive narrowing of the investigation through a thorough trace back process is occurring. It is very possible that we may never know if tomatoes are the source or, if they are, where they were grown or processed or how they were contaminated.

"Our industry has taken dramatic steps to develop the strongest practices possible to prevent contamination in the field and throughout the supply chain. We have done this in close collaboration with public health authorities at the local and federal level. Now it is time to look at how FDA ‘intervenes’ in the event of an outbreak and how they ‘communicate’ with the public and industry to ensure that public health is protected without the irreparable destruction of agricultural economies.

"The collateral damage inflicted on thousands of innocent producers in this country by FDA blanket ‘advisories,’ such as with spinach and tomatoes cannot go unchallenged.

"We look forward to a positive response from the House Committee on Agriculture and to working with them to balance the important goals of protecting public health and agricultural economies," said Nassif.

Western Growers is an agricultural trade association whose members from Arizona and California grow, pack and ship ninety percent of the fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in California and seventy five percent of those commodities in Arizona. This totals about half of the nation’s fresh produce.

Import safety: yawn

This HHS report about import safety doesn't seem to be getting a lot of play in the press, perhaps because everyone is paying attention to the salmonella outbreak story. Highlights from the HHS news release

The new Action Plan Update chronicles the substantial progress made by the federal government, private sector and international partners over the last eight months, and also previews selected plans for the near- and long-term. Accomplishments include:

• The Justice Department has indicted two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company for their roles in manufacturing and importing tainted ingredients used in pet food.

• The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agency is coordinating to ensure harmonized government procedures and requirements exist in importation. CBP is working towards a shared automated system permitting information gathering and sharing among participating import safety agencies.

• HHS signed and has begun to implement landmark Memoranda of Agreement with China to enhance the safety of a wide variety of food, feed, drugs and medical devices traded between the two nations.

• The Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement with China to protect human health and the environment in the field of imported and exported products.

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has a Memorandum of Understanding with China and implemented agreements in key consumer product categories.

• CBP and CPSC are working with the private sector to explore including an import safety component in CBP’s Importer Self-Assessment Program.

• The Toy Industry Association partnered with the American National Standards Institute to create a safety assurance program for toys.

• Discovering an increase in adverse reactions to heparin, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) linked the contaminant to Chinese suppliers and has worked with the Chinese government subsequently to improve testing. This process was more efficient due to two previous Memoranda of Agreement that were put in place last December to enhance the safety of a wide variety of food, feed, drugs and medical devices traded between the two nations.

• The United States Government (HHS, USDA and the Department of Commerce) participated in a forum with Central American countries to discuss ways to ensure the safety of manufactured goods and foods as they move between countries. Similar discussions have occurred with the leaders of other countries, including China, Viet Nam and India.

CU: Congress should mandate traceability

Pressure is building for mandated traceability. When will the industry make a case for its own initiative? Sliding across the inbox July 1:

Consumers Union calls on Congress to mandate traceability for fruits and vegetables and for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish strong safety standards for produce in light of FDA’s continued difficulties in determining the source of the recent outbreak of salmonella in food. 

As the number of identified salmonella infections topped 800, the FDA announced today that it had still not identified the cause of the problem and was broadening its investigation from tomatoes to include other produce that might be eaten with tomatoes.  

“The FDA should not have to spend its modest resources trying to track down the source of food contamination for weeks and even months, while more consumers continue to get sick," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union.  “When foodborne illnesses do occur, it shouldn't be so hard to trace them back to the source.  Congress should require modern electronic recordkeeping systems that go from farm to table.  If Fed Ex can keep track of all its packages moving around the country, the produce industry should be able to do the same," Halloran added. 

 

Consumers Union has called for more funding for the FDA to perform yearly inspections  of processing plants, for the agency to develop operating plans for food processing  facilities that insure safety, and for domestic and foreign food producers to be required to be certified as in compliance with these safety plans and with U.S. food safety standards.  In addition, trace-back systems that include package identifiers allowing each product to be traced back to the field in which it originated are needed to further protect consumers from contaminated food.  CU has also called for consolidation of the 15 agencies that oversee our food safety system.

 

“The FDA needs to be much more effective in enforcing food safety standards,” added Halloran.  “We are in a global economy, with tomatoes from Mexico and fish from China for sale on a daily basis in our supermarkets," said Halloran.  "The FDA needs to be upgraded and modernized to meet these challenges."

 

For the latest information on the tomato situation and other safety issues, see

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/.

DeLauro : FDA apathetic about traceability

Traceability is a fast-rising issue; from Rep. DeLauro on July 1:

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) issued the following statement regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s on-going investigation into the cause of the current salmonella outbreak, in which over 850 people in 36 states and Washington, D.C. have been sickened by the rare Saintpaul strain.

“Nearly three months into this investigation, new cases of salmonella continue to be diagnosed – some of whom fell ill less than two weeks ago; consumer confidence further erodes; and the food industry faces estimated costs of at least $100 million. Given the FDA’s difficulty in pinpointing the source of this salmonella outbreak, including new questions as to whether tomatoes are the culprit, it is troublesome that the agency has yet to implement a traceability system.

“Despite holding public meetings/workshops on traceability last year and the availability of the technology, the FDA has taken no other action.  In fact, the agency is even ignoring calls from the produce industry for the adoption of such a system.

“Had the agency put in place a traceability system, the FDA may have been able to rule out tomatoes sooner and moved on to something else if in fact tomatoes are not the culprit – sparing consumers and tomato growers a lot of harm. The FDA must heed the warning implicit in this recall and immediately implement a traceability system to help prevent this from happening again.”

Crisis management

The tomatoes/salmonella outbreak/investigation has presented the industry with one of its toughest challenges ever, creating dynamics of outrage with the FDA's performance and defensiveness about produce traceability. Here is a July 1 communication from United Fresh, which touches on both realities.

Dear Produce Industry Members,

Given the heavy media pick up over the past few days, I wanted to send you a brief update on the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak, even though there is no new information to report specifically on the outbreak investigation itself.

Last Friday, on June 27th, CDC and FDA held a joint media briefing to provide an update on the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak. As you know from the media reports over the weekend, during this briefing CDC indicated that tomatoes may not be the source of the outbreak, although CDC also said that there was still a very strong correlation with tomatoes. In addition, FDA stated that the source of the outbreak may still be in the marketplace; this was based on a June 15 onset of illness date.

Today, CDC and FDA held another joint media briefing, and health authorities reported that June 20 is now the latest onset of illness date related to the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak, and this is still an ongoing outbreak. During the call, CDC and FDA both reiterated that although "other items commonly consumed with tomatoes" are now also being investigated, the strongest correlation is still with tomatoes.

It is important to note that CDC and FDA did not change their advice to consumers, retailers and restaurateurs. The FDA advice is: "July1, 2008: At this time, FDA recommends consuming raw red plum, raw red Roma, or raw red round tomatoes only if grown and harvested from the… areas that HAVE NOT BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE OUTBREAK." In addition, "types of tomatoes not linked to any illnesses are cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes with the vine still attached."

A replay of today's media call is available until Friday, July 4, 2008 by dialing 1-800-462-2082; international callers can dial 1-402-344-6820.

FDA is continuing its outbreak investigations in both Florida and Mexico to determine the source of the outbreak. FDA is sampling both domestic and imported product, and continuing to pursue new traceback investigations.

Here at United Fresh, Dr. David Gombas and I have both been giving print and on-camera media interviews. Our general messaging is focused on the industry’s commitment to food safety both in preventing and responding to problems, our sincere hope that CDC has not led any of us down the wrong path, both because of the losses incurred by the industry, but also because, if the outbreak was not caused by tomatoes, everything done over the past five weeks will have done little to actually protect public health, and, finally, the unacceptable management of this outbreak and our request for industry and government health officials to work together on an ongoing basis, not just when a problem occurs. The media has also asked about traceability and country of origin labeling. If you have been contacted by the media and would like to discuss these lines of questioning, or if you would like to refer these calls to us, please feel free to provide my number to reporters.

Obviously, the most important thing to do is still to stop the outbreak, which would be signaled by going 2-3 consecutive weeks with no new illness occurring. To this end, United Fresh has been working with industry scientists and supply chain experts to provide FDA and CDC as much industry input as possible. We are also receiving calls from congressional offices asking what the industry is doing in the areas of traceability and food safety, so we have been answering these questions as well.

As always, we will keep you updated as new information becomes available. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at: Amy Philpott, Vice President, Communications, 202-303-3400 ext. 425.

Regards,

Amy

United Fresh Produce Association
1901 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Ste 1100
Washington, DC 20006

FDA: It would be irresponsible

The FDA's serpentine traceback investigation - and the industry's reaction to it - continues to be the top story in the fresh produce industry. The article below was linked by Doug Powell and the International Food Safety Network, from Health Day News:

With the number of people sickened in the nationwide salmonella outbreak now standing at 869, with 107 hospitalizations, U.S. officials acknowledged Tuesday that they were no closer to identifying the source of the contaminant.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also announced it was expanding its investigation to include food items normally served with tomatoes. While tomatoes are still the leading suspected source of the bacterial infections in the two-month-old outbreak, officials said they can't rule out other food items associated with tomatoes. But, they declined to say what those other foods might be.
"It would be irresponsible of us at this point to say where we are expanding the testing," said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for food protection. "I'm not prepared to discuss what those items might be."
"The tomato trail is not getting cold, rather other items are getting hotter," he added.
Acheson said the FDA has also activated the Food Emergency Response Network, which could bring to 100 the number of laboratories across the country working to identify the source of the outbreak. The network has been activated before, specifically during the spinach outbreak and the contaminated pet food outbreak in 2007.
Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of foodborne, bacterial and mycotic diseases division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said at the teleconference that his agency was conducting a multi-state investigation focusing on the 179 people who have fallen ill since June 1. He did not explain why the CDC was zeroing in on that group of people.
Meanwhile, the advice to consumers remains the same, Acheson said. Avoid raw red plum, red Roma, round red tomatoes, and products containing these raw tomatoes.
To date, infections have been reported in 36 states and the District of Columbia, making it the largest produce-linked salmonella outbreak in U.S. history. There have been no deaths, officials said.
Also Tuesday, the Bush administration's top health official expressed frustration that the salmonella outbreak hasn't been solved yet. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt asked Congress for more money and stronger legal powers for food import safety agencies, the Associated Press reported.
CDC officials first acknowledged on Friday that they were no longer sure that the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak was due to tomatoes alone, or some other food source.
"Whatever this produce item is that's causing illness is probably still out there making people sick," Dr. Patricia Griffin, chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the CDC, told reporters late Friday at a special press teleconference.
Health officials have said all along that the bulk of the tomatoes available at the start of the outbreak in mid-April had come from Mexico and parts of Florida. The FDA had sent teams of investigators to Florida and Mexico last month to inspect farms, packing houses and distribution centers.
One factor complicating the search for the cause of the outbreak is a common food industry practice called "repacking."
"Repacking is a situation in which a supplier or a distributor will repack tomatoes to meet a specific customers' requests," Acheson explained. "So, if a customer is wanting small, ripe tomatoes and the supplier does not have a box of small ripe tomatoes, then they will typically go through multiple boxes and pull out ones that meet customers' specifications and repack them. It's a very, very common practice. We've seen reports that it may be as common as 90 percent of tomatoes get repacked, but we don't have confirmation that the number is that high. Obviously this complicates the trace-back," Acheson said Friday.
He also said that it was possible that tomatoes were contaminated at a packing and distribution center, not a particular farm. That means that produce from states that have been cleared may have gone through packing or distribution houses elsewhere, and become contaminated there.
The food poisoning scare ranks as the largest on record in terms of illnesses linked to tainted produce, the CDC said. "This is so far the biggest outbreak with this number of illnesses confirmed by culture," Griffin noted.
More than 300 of the total cases from the current outbreak have come from Texas. Patient ages range from under 1 year old to 99 years old. Half the victims are women.
Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea in humans. Some 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States each year, although the CDC estimates that because milder cases are not diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be 30 or more times greater. Approximately 600 people die each year after being infected.
However, the strain of Salmonella Saintpaul had been previously considered rare. In 2007, according to the CDC, there were only three people infected in the country during April through June.