Produce traceback - Is PTI good enough for reformers?

Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network finds this gem from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minnesota. This well written piece by Maryn McKenna explores what's ahead for the new Administration, beyond the not insignificant task of fixing the economy.

But simmering in the background is a substantial grassroots movement that is pressing the new administration to enact change within the government as well, at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And a key part of any reform may involve correcting the deficiencies in what is now a complex and fragmented system for tracing contaminated produce items to their source.


TK: the story goes on to examine the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, the "one step up and one step back" already in place and the Produce Traceability Initiative. Here is what the report said about PTI:

The initiative, which is voluntary and would roll out between 2009 and 2012, gives reformers some of what they seek: It establishes a universal code that follows produce wherever it goes in the system. But it labels produce only by case, not by individual item. And it does not establish a single database than can be queried in a single step in seconds. The produce industry resisted appeals for that, fearing it would place too great a financial burden on smaller producers. The industry chose instead to have the information on each step of a case's progress reside in the computers of the various businesses it moved through.

That may not be enough to bring produce traceability and food safety in line with a reform agenda. Several recent analyses of what needs to change at FDA insist that guaranteed rapid access to provenance information is the key piece needed to make trace-back work. In September, the GAO recommended that FDA be allowed to access information more directly in emergencies, both to identify suspect foods and to ascertain whether other foods processed in the same facility also pose a threat.

And last May, the Food Safety Research Consortium, a group of researchers from seven institutions who are funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, called for a fully accessible "network of networks" across the food safety system. "There is no effective system for ensuring rapid government access to critical trace-back information," Michael Taylor, a research professor of health policy at George Washington University and the project's leader, testified in July.

TK: The story concludes with the thought that food safety reform may have to wait in line behind a host of economic issues that Obama must address. But that won't diminish the need, experts say, for a sleeker food safety system that can deal with multi-state foodborne illness outbreaks.

Poisoned peppers?

Doug Powell links to a blog post by food safety lawyer Bill Marler that's worth noting. Find it here.

Marler writes on his blog:

What if the great 2008 Tomato, right Pepper, Salmonella Outbreak actually happened this way?

At 10:00 PM last May 30th, on the same day New Mexico asked for help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) with a growing outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul, a foreign Network begin airing a video taken inside a fresh produce distribution center showing workers treating peppers with an unknown liquid. There is a claim that this is a terrorist act.

In the next 15 minutes, every network news operation is playing the video. The broadcast networks break into regular programming to air it, and the cable news stations go nonstop with the video while talking heads dissect it.

Coming on a Friday afternoon on the East Coast, the food terrorism story catches the mainstream Media completely off guard. Other than to say the video is being analyzed by CIA experts, and is presumed to be authentic, there isn’t much coming out of the government.

Far-fetched? Don’t count on it. I have been saying for years that a foodborne illness outbreak will look just like the terrorist act described above, but without the video on FOX News. Far-fetched?

Tell that to the 751 people in Wasco County, Oregon—including 45 who required hospital stays---who in 1984 ate at any one of ten salad bars in town and were poisoned with Salmonella by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The goal was to make people who were not followers of the cult too sick to vote in county elections.

Tell that to Chile, where in 1989, a shipment of grapes bound for the United States was found laced with cyanide, bringing trade suspension that cost the South American country $200 million. It was very much like a 1970s plot by Palestinian terrorists to inject Israel’s Jaffa oranges with mercury.

Tell that to the 111 people, including 40 children, sickened in May 2003 when a Michigan supermarket employee intentionally tainted 200 pounds of ground beef with an insecticide containing nicotine.

Tell that to Mr. Litvenenko, the Russian spy poisoned in the UK with polonium-laced food.

Tell that to Stanford University researchers who modeled a nightmare scenario where a mere 4 grams of botulinum toxin dropped into a milk production facility could cause serious illness and even death to 400,000 people in the United States.

The reason I bring this up is not only because we are about to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11, but because I wonder if food terrorism really had been the cause of this year’s Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, would it have made any difference in our government’s ability to figure out there was an outbreak, to figure out the cause, and to stop it before it sickened so many.

Would the fact of terrorists operating from inside a fresh produce distribution center somewhere inside the United States or Mexico brought more or effective resources to the search for the source of the Salmonella Saintpaul? If credit-taking terrorists were putting poison on our peppers, could we be certain Uncle Sam’s response would have been more robust or effective then if it was just a “regular” food illness outbreak?

Later, Marler writes:

If credit-taking terrorists were putting poison on our peppers, could we be certain that Uncle Sam’s response would be more robust, more effective than if it was just a “regular” food illness outbreak?

Absolutely not! The CDC publicly admits that it manages to count and track only one of every forty foodborne illness victims, and that its inspectors miss key evidence as outbreaks begin. The FDA is on record as referring to themselves as overburdened, underfunded, understaffed, and in possession of no real power to make a difference during recalls, because even Class 1 recalls are “voluntary.” If you are a food manufacturer, packer, or distributor, you are more likely to be hit by lightening than be inspected by the FDA. You are perfectly free to continue to sell and distribute your poisoned product, whether it has been poisoned accidentally or intentionally.

The reality is that the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak is a brutal object lesson in the significant gaps in our ability to track and protect our food supply. We are ill prepared for a crisis, regardless of who poisons us.

Somewhere between the farm and your table, our Uncle Sam got lost.

TK: I personally think the government's response would more more robust in the event of a food terror attack. In fact, the first thing I would do would be to put Jack Bauer on the case ASAP. 24 hours to solve the case, not 24 weeks. Seriously, taking a serious flight of fancy here, wouldn't it be great if Jack Bauer ran traceback investigations for the FDA? Turn off the cameras in the interrogation room, Chloe - Jack has some work to do.

Jack, where are are you?

Waste water and agriculture

We can safely say that the quality of water is a huge factor in the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Given that reality, Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network links to this sobering news release about the use of sewage waste water in developing countries. From the news release from the International Water Management Institute:



Most Common in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, Wastewater Use is Critical to Farmers Incomes, Urban Food Security but Raises Health Concerns
Stockholm, Sweden (18 August 2008) — As developing countries confront the first global food crisis since the 1970s as well as unprecedented water scarcity, a new 53-city survey conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) indicates that most of those studied (80 percent) are using untreated or partially treated wastewater for agriculture. In over 70 percent of the cities studied, more than half of urban agricultural
land is irrigated with wastewater that is either raw or diluted in streams. The conclusions of the study, released today at 2008 World Water Week in Stockholm, are based on data gathered from a diverse sample of developing country cities, chosen on the basis of factors such as water scarcity and income levels. Local experts selected by an independent panel completed survey questionnaires, drawing on secondary data as well as interviews with local water management experts and detailed country studies. “Irrigating with wastewater isn’t a rare practice limited to a few of the poorest countries,” said IWMI researcher Liqa Raschid-Sally and lead author of a report on survey results. “It’s a widespread phenomenon, occurring on 20 million hectares across the developing world, especially in Asian countries, like China, India and Vietnam, but also around nearly every city of sub-Saharan Africa and in many Latin American cities as well.” Wastewater is most commonly used to produce vegetables and cereals (especially rice), according to this and other IWMI reports, raising concerns about health risks for consumers, particularly of vegetables that are consumed uncooked.


“The negative and positive implications of wastewater agriculture have only recently received attention,” noted Colin Chartres, director general of IWMI, which is supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). “This study offers the first comprehensive, cross-country analysis of the conditions that account for the practice and the difficult tradeoffs that arise from it.” Accra, Ghana’s capital city (with an urban population of nearly 2 million), illustrates those tradeoffs particularly well. An estimated 200,000 of the city’s inhabitants daily purchase vegetables produced on just 100 hectares of urban agricultural land irrigated with wastewater, says the IWMI report. “That gives you an idea,” remarked Raschid-Sally, “of the large potential of wastewater agriculture for both helping and hurting great numbers of urban consumers.”

Farmers too are aware that irrigating with wastewater may pose health risks both for themselves and the consumers of their produce, but they simply have little choice, since safe groundwater is seldom an accessible alternative, according to the IWMI report. Few developing countries reported having official guidelines for the use of wastewater in agriculture. And even if they do, monitoring and enforcement rarely happen and may not be realistic, especially where irrigation with polluted water occurs on a large scale. As a result, though the practice may be theoretically forbidden or controlled, it is in fact “unofficially tolerated.”

TK: It would appear most of the food-related impact of the waste water is confined to urban areas near where the produce is grown in developing countries. However, this report illustrates just how much work needs to be done to improve the quality of life for much of the world's population.

UTEP finds pepper problems

This link found by Doug Powell and the Food Safety Network reveals this story about UTEP researchers and Mexican peppers. From the ABC-7 TV reporter Martin Bartlett:

NEAR CASETA, Chihuahua - For a group of local researchers, the recent scare over the safety of jalapeno peppers grown in Chihuahua is no big surprise.

On Friday, the Chihuahua State Health Department announced they found a pepper contaminated with salmonella near Camargo, and urged diners to avoid all jalapenos grown in the state.

A group of University of Texas at El Paso researchers spent much of this summer documenting the working conditions of jalapeno farm workers in Chihuahua.

"The students did find an unhealthy environment," said UTEP School of Nursing Dean Dr. Robert Anders. "There weren't bathroom facilities for them, there wasn't potable water, so if the workers wanted to wash their hands there wasn't anything that allowed them to do such."

Anders says the peppers could easily be contaminated through contact with human waste or unwashed hands. The problem of agricultural contamination isn't new to Mexico and it isn't all that far from your dinner plate, either.

In the farming communities downstream from Juarez, the canals are filled with "las aguas negras" - the black waters - and they have a very pungent odor: similar to that of motor oil and human waste. That's why local farmers said non-food crops like cotton have become king in the Juarez valley; they say the nearest jalapeno production is near Palomas in northwest Chihuahua.

Since salmonella lives on the skin of a plant and not inside it, Anders said a thorough washing should clean salmonella off any produce. If you want to be extra careful he says eat jalapenos that have been cooked, pickled, or pealed.

TK: A troubling report, perhaps, but far too many unanswered questions. Who were these researchers? Why is the dean of the School of Nursing providing comment for the story? What is a "pealed" pepper?

Jalapeno: testing positive

A pepper reportedly purchased at Wal-Mart by a consumer sickened by Salmonella Saintpaul has tested positive for the same DNA pattern as the Salmonella Saintpaul pathogen involved in the multi state outbreak. Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network passes on this link from a newspaper in La Junta, Colo. with the story.
Meanwhile, here is the link to the Colorado Department of Public Health, and excerpts from that news release, which has been the foundation for most media reports:


DENVER - The Laboratory Services Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has confirmed that a jalapeno pepper provided by an ill individual from Montezuma County has tested positive with the same DNA pattern of Salmonella Saintpaul-the strain that has caused a large, multistate outbreak of salmonella.
The pepper was purchased at a local Wal-Mart, likely on June 24, and the individual became ill on July 4. This is the first pepper linked directly to an ill person in this outbreak.
The state health department is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine the origin of the pepper.
On Friday, the FDA advised consumers that all fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in the United States are not associated with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. However, jalapeno and serrano peppers grown outside of the United States should be eaten only if they have been processed or canned. They should not be eaten raw.
This advisory was based on evidence gathered during a multiweek, intensive investigation conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with the FDA and several states to find the source of the contamination that led to the outbreak.
State health officials advised consumers who are going to purchase jalapeno or serrano peppers to first ask their grocer’s manager where their peppers were grown.
The CDC reports that since April 1,304 people have been infected with a strain of Salmonella Saintpaul having the same genetic fingerprint. Cases have been identified in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, with 16 confirmed cases reported in Colorado-Adams (2); Denver (2); Douglas (1); El Paso (3); Montezuma (2); Otero (2); Pueblo (3); Weld (1).
Salmonella causes diarrhea, oftentimes bloody, and is accompanied by stomach cramps and fever. Symptoms typically begin within one to four days after exposure to the bacteria. Although most people recover without treatment, severe infections may occur. In infants, people with poor underlying health and those with weakened immune systems, Salmonella can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections.
Consumers are advised to follow the general food safety guidelines below:
Refrigerate within two hours or discard cut, peeled or cooked produce.
Avoid purchasing bruised or damaged produce.
Discard any produce that appears spoiled.
Thoroughly wash all produce under running water.
Keep produce that will be consumed raw separate from raw meats, raw seafood and raw produce items.
Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils and counter tops with hot water and soap when switching between types of food products.
Consumers are reminded that vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet and that cooking vegetables kills bacteria, including Salmonella.
FDA information on this investigation can be found at http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html.

Big deal or no big deal

Is the salmonella outbreak, which has sickened over 1,000 - and made many tomato handlers substantially poorer - a big deal? Here is an interesting take passed on by Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network from NextGov on comments by David Acheson.

As of today, nearly 1,000 people have been sickened, one person has died, and at least $150 million has been lost by tomato growers and sellers (and probably more now that peppers, onions and cilantro are becoming suspects) because of a salmonella outbreak as of yet unknown origin.

Not to worry, though. It isn’t a big deal.

To quote Dr. David Acheson, food safety chief of the Food and Drug Administration, “We’re a nation of 300 million people who eat two-to-three times a day. To have 800 people sick is not that big of a deal.”

OK, Acheson has a point: 1,000 out of 304,554,835 (according to theUS Census population clock as of this post) is only 3.2834809534381550698415278811778e-6 percent, if my fingers hit the calculator correctly. [Which they didn't the first time - it should be .00003% - which a sharp reader caught - see comments below.]

But that perspective leads, of course, to the question of what does the FDA believe is a BIG DEAL?

Is it 3,000 people sick? 100,000? Even a million is only a statistical blip.

Or how about deaths? About 5,500 people die every day in the United States. One person dying from salmonella over a couple months is not a Big Deal either to the FDA, I gather from Acheson’s comments.

So, exactly what is the level necessary for the sick or dying to be considered a Big Deal?

Of course, not only do we need to know what a Big Deal is in relation to a single event, but also from a multiple event perspective.

Over the last decade, there have been 13 salmonella outbreaks from tomatoes alone. And this count doesn’t include other food-borne problems, like E. coli or Hepatitis A. (Remember spinach and green onions?)

Once we know what FDA's Big Deal risk threshold is (and what's the Agriculture Department's as well for meats and dairy products -- remember Taco Bell?), we can then start to figure out the true cost/benefit to putting in a food tracing system that Allan Holmeswrote about.

In fact, we may find that we don’t even need an FDA, as the late Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman argued.

When 1,000 people get sick and tiny tracking documents

Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network passes along this link to a New York Times editorial about - of course - the FDA and the salmonella outbreak. The industry may be weighed down with many new tasks because of this outbreak. From the piece:


The government officials who are supposed to protect America’s food supply are not certain what has made almost 1,000 people ill in the last three months. At first it was raw tomatoes that appeared to be tainted with a rare form of salmonella. So, consumers avoided tomatoes, and the tomato business suffered mightily. Health officials are still worried about tomatoes, but they’ve also raised concerns about jalapeño peppers. Or perhaps cilantro. Or maybe some brands of salsa. Somewhere. Meanwhile, people keep getting sick.
This failure is an urgent reminder that the country needs an effective system to track food from the farm to the table. If health officials could find tainted items and quickly trace them back to their tainted source, it would save consumers their health and businesses profits.
After last year’s problems with contaminated peanut butter, spinach and imported seafood, Congress and the White House pledged to take swift action to ensure the safety of the nation’s food.
Both houses of Congress are still working on food-safety bills, and the Food and Drug Administration — understaffed and ill equipped — unveiled a food-safety plan in November but has yet to implement it. There can be no more delay. The F.D.A. commissioner, Andrew von Eschenbach, should use his emergency powers now to impose new rules to improve food safety.
Last week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Consumer Federation of America called on Dr. von Eschenbach to use his authority to require the food industry to put in place a detailed tracking system to follow produce from farm to fork. This is a good idea.
Some food producers already track their products. Others could add information to the stickers already on many fruits and vegetables to identify where they are grown and how they are distributed. Those stickers could act as tiny tracking documents allowing investigators to see quickly how the nation’s produce moves from field to final destination.
The consumer organizations also called for another promising idea — that each producer or processor create a detailed and written safety plan to help the F.D.A. identify and prevent such problems as contaminated water or lack of proper sanitation facilities for workers.
If the cluelessness about this latest salmonella outbreak offers one lesson, it is that health officials need to know exactly where the nation’s fruits and vegetables have been. And they need to know it before even more people fall ill.

CDC map, media and jalapeno peppers

Here in Nebraska for the July 4 weekend, I was listening this morning to KRVN radio when I heard an update on the salmonella outbreak. According to the newscaster, investigators now believe jalapeno peppers may be the culprit, but then, at the same time, tomatoes may still not be off the hook. Good grief, what is going on here? Even the Nebraska corn farmers who watched the Bertrand fireworks show with us last night remarked that the government should probably say nothing until they know something. So I'm going online and trying to figure out what the "latest" communication from the feds is.

From the CDC on July 4:

Since April, 943 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. These were identified because clinical laboratories in all states send Salmonella strains from ill persons to their State public health laboratory for characterization. No new states report ill persons. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (2 persons), Arkansas (10), Arizona (45), California (8), Colorado (12), Connecticut (4), Florida (2), Georgia (24), Idaho (4), Illinois (93), Indiana (14), Iowa (2), Kansas (17), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (1), Maine (1), Maryland (29), Massachusetts (22), Michigan (7), Minnesota (8), Missouri (12), New Hampshire (4), Nevada (11), New Jersey (9), New Mexico (98), New York (28), North Carolina (10), Ohio (7), Oklahoma (23), Oregon (10), Pennsylvania (8), Rhode Island (3), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (8), Texas (356), Utah (2), Virginia (29), Vermont (2), Washington (4), Wisconsin (10), and the District of Columbia (1). One ill person is reported from Ontario, Canada. The ill person reported travel to the United States and became ill on the day of the return trip to Canada.
Among the 645 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 26, 2008, including 225 who became ill on June 1 or later. Many steps must occur between a person becoming ill and the determination that the illness was caused by the outbreak strain of Salmonella; these steps take an average of 2-3 weeks. Therefore, an illness reported today may have begun 2-3 weeks ago. Patients range in age from <1 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Saintpaul at the time of his death; the infection may have contributed to his death.

From the FDA:

July 5, 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 following areas that HAVE NOT BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE OUTBREAK:

TK: Doug Powell links to this Baltimore Sun article that was probably the source of the KRVN news item. From the story:

By Jonathan D. Rockoff Sun reporter
July 4, 2008
WASHINGTON - Investigators are seeing more signs that the salmonella outbreak blamed on tomatoes might have been caused by tainted jalapeno peppers and have begun collecting samples from restaurants and from the homes of those who have been sickened, according to health officials involved in the probe.New interviews with those who became infected found that many had eaten jalapeno peppers, often in salsa served with Mexican food, according to two state health officials. So far, none of the jalapenos taken from restaurants and from the homes of those who became ill have tested positive for Salmonella saintpaul.Echoing federal officials, who said this week that tomatoes remain the prime suspect, the health officials said that tomatoes cannot be ruled out as the cause of the outbreak. Investigators have been collecting samples of another possible suspect, cilantro, though the herb is less likely to be the source, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.The outbreak, which began 12 weeks ago, is believed to be the largest of its kind, and new cases continue to emerge. It has sickened more than 920 people across the country, up from 756 one week ago, and sent more than 110 to the hospital. In Maryland, 29 people have been confirmed to have the illness, which can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and, in severe cases, death.

In late May, investigators began focusing on tomatoes as the probable source of the outbreak. But they expanded their investigation last week, asking 100 labs around the country to help, because the number of new infections kept growing despite the short shelf life of tomatoes and warnings to avoid certain varieties.Delays in pinpointing the cause of the outbreak have frustrated consumers, angered the produce industry and prompted members of Congress to call for food safety reforms."How sad is that? We can't even really figure out what it is," said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat who has proposed food tracking and mandatory recall measures. "We've had the same problem with other products in past years, which shows us the food safety system in this country is outdated and underfunded."Chile peppers are largely grown in Mexico, Central America and warm weather U.S. states such as Florida. Food-safety specialists said jalapenos are not a common cause of bacterial outbreaks and counseled caution about rushing to judgment that the peppers are responsible for this one.Contaminated green chile peppers in Colorado sickened 80 people in 1998 and 60 in 2001, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which tracks food-borne illnesses. Neither outbreak involved salmonella bacteria.A likely source of jalepeno contamination is the water used to irrigate plants or wash peppers after they're picked, said Robert B. Gravani, a food science professor at Cornell University.One health official involved in the investigation said "loose ends" are keeping tomatoes under suspicion, but the official said they could be accounted for easily. The official said evidence is "piling up" that indicates that jalapenos are to blame. "There's certainly no shred of doubt in my mind," the official said.Another health official was more cautious, saying that the evidence is pointing to peppers but that there is not yet enough information to rule out tomatoes. The official said the Food and Drug Administration is enlisting more labs in the investigation so it can test jalapenos, tomatoes and cilantro more quickly.Both officials played down the likelihood that cilantro is to blame, saying the evidence for that is thin.Health officials fear that an acknowledgment that the outbreak was not caused by tomatoes could undermine confidence in the public health system. Officials are especially worried that it could reduce support for using statistical analysis of interviews with infected people to justify warnings and recalls, despite many previous successes, because officials decided to issue the tomato warning without waiting to find one that was contaminated. Tomato industry groups have criticized the use of statistical analysis and say that government health officials should wait until they find a contaminated product before taking serious actions such as recalls. But government officials say that delaying a warning could cause serious harm to public health, because more people could become sick without an early alert.The tomato industry estimates that it has lost $100 million since the June 10 warning."What makes it so pathetic is there has been nothing found," said Bob Spencer, co-owner of West Coast Tomato, which was forced to stop harvesting its fields in Florida and let tomatoes rot in company warehouses.Liberal interest groups, leading trade associations and congressional critics say the failure to find the outbreak's source, after seven weeks of trying, points up the need for better food tracking systems. They contend that better labeling could quickly lead investigators to a farm that harvested suspicious produce.Some growers and suppliers have such tracking systems in place. Critics say the FDA should require the tracking systems, which provide detailed information about the source and distribution of produce."There is a lot of frustration that the FDA cannot tell us where the tomatoes are from or even whether tomatoes are the cause," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

TK: One unnamed authority says "there is no shred of doubt in my mind" that jalapeno peppers are the link. Are you kidding me? This ragtag investigation by state and federal authorities defies description and characterization. While the tomato industry continues to be under the thumb of federal advisories, a state official says there is "no shred of doubt" about jalapenos? It is hard to imagine a scenario where FDA/CDC come to a clear verdict on the salmonella outbreak that points to anything different than tomatoes, so great would be the outcry against the harm they have done the tomato industry. Astounding.....

Doug Powell: Home gardening tips

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

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.

FDA investigation: Shattered confidence

The USA Today article published yesterday is a must read, and it confirms that any confidence the public had in the agency is slipping away. From the story:

Three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes linked to the salmonella outbreak, people are still falling ill, says Robert Tauxe with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The latest numbers as of Monday afternoon were 851 cases, some of whom fell ill as recently as June 20, says Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's division of foodborne diseases.
The CDC launched a new round of interviews over the weekend. "We're broadening the investigation to be sure it encompasses food items that are commonly consumed with tomatoes," Tauxe says.
If another food is found to be the culprit after tomatoes were recalled nationwide and the produce industry sustained losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, food safety experts say the public's trust in the government's ability to track foodborne illnesses will be shattered.

"It's going to fundamentally rewrite how we do outbreak investigations in this country," says Michael Osterholm of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense at the University of Minnesota. "We can't let this investigation, however it might turn out, end with just the answer of 'What caused it?' We need to take a very in-depth look at foodborne disease investigation as we do it today."
At a news conference Friday, representatives of the FDA and the CDC were more forceful in saying that they aren't sure tainted tomatoes caused the outbreak of salmonella saintpaul, a fairly rare strain. Previous statements had been more vague.
Over the weekend, the tide of opinion among epidemiologists, produce companies and food safety officials also began to turn in that direction.
Tomatoes couldn't have caused an outbreak that has stretched from early April to late June, says Jim Prevor, editor of Produce Business magazine. "There's not a field in the world" that produces that long, he says.
If not tomatoes, what else? "Something that people find difficult to remember but which is always served with tomatoes," says Tauxe.

That would put salsa, jalapeño peppers, green onions and cilantro at the top of the list of potential culprits, says Doug Powell, director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.
Food safety experts caution that outbreaks are very difficult to trace back to their source, especially tomatoes, which are often mixed and matched at the packing plant to get uniform sizes and ripeness.

TK: Follow the link to consumer comments on the USA Today site, revealing general disrespect for the agency's efforts.

Food Safety Network - Doug Powell

Doug Powell isn't taking the weekend off; here are a couple of items from creator of the International Food Safety Network:


MANHATTAN — Outbreaks of Salmonella in tomatoes and E. coli O157:H7 in romaine lettuce have once again raised questions about the safety of fresh produce."Fresh fruits and vegetables are the most significant sources of foodborne illness today in the United States," said Douglas Powell,associate professor and scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University. "Because fresh produce is not cooked, anything that comes into contact is a possible source of contamination."Powell said wash water, irrigation water, manure in soil, even contact with animals or humans, can introduce dangerous microorganisms onto fresh produce. There is evidence that bacteria like Salmonella and E.coli can enter fruit like tomatoes and cantaloupes, and leafy greens such as spinach and lettuce, making removal extremely difficult."The farm is the first line of defense." Powell said. "Whether your produce comes from around the corner or around the globe, contamination must be prevented on the farm."Powell has more than 10 years experience in developing, implementing and assessing on-farm food safety programs for fresh produce.A brief review of pathogens in produce is available at:http://tinyurl.com/6ypdadA table of tomato-related North American outbreaks is available at:http://tinyurl.com/6oqv67A table of known outbreaks of verotoxigenic E. coli -- including but not limited to E. coli O157:H7 -- associated with fresh spinach and lettuce is available at: http://tinyurl.com/586azl
Dr. Douglas Powell
associate professor scientific director International Food Safety Network
(iFSN)dept. diagnostic medicine/pathobiology
Kansas State UniversityManhattan, KS66506
cell: 785-317-0560


Doug Powell, food scientist and creator of the International Food Safety Network, an online repository of food-safety related information, joined K-State as an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine's department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in May 2006.

The International Food Safety Network is a collection of individuals who passionately care about reducing the burden of foodborne illness and seek innovative ways to compel everyone in the farm-to-fork food safety system -- individual producers, retail employees, and consumers, among others -- to acknowledge and adopt best practices to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Under Powell's supervision, researchers and students with the network conduct research, provide commentary, policy evaluation and public information on a range of food safety issues such as the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables, restaurant inspection discloures sytems and human behavior. Powell also conducts research in food safety risk analyss, especially whether food-safety information is having its intended effect of influencing the practices of consumers and those in the food industry. The network also produces four electronic mail lists that are sent around the world each day: Food Safety Network, FSNet; Agriculture Network, AgNet; Animal Network, AnimalNet; and Functional Food Network, FFNet.

Powell co-authored the 1997 book, "Mad Cows and Mother's Milk: The Perils of Poor Risk Communication," which explores case studies where institutions fail to communicate the scientific basis of high-profile risks in food safety. Among the cases discussed are the 1996 mad cow disease outbreak in Britain and the emergence of E. coli in hamburger in the early 1990s.

Subscribing to any of the International Food Safety Network e-mail lists is free and can be done at the Food Safety Network Web site, http://www.foodsafety.k-state.edu/en/

International Food Safety Network also maintains barfblog, a forum for musing about current food safety issues.

Powell can be reached at 785-317-0560, or via e-mail at dpowell@k-state.edu.

Report: tainted tomatoes suspected

From the KSU Food Safety Network, this link to a story from New Mexico about a salmonella outbreak. From KOB.com in NM:

Health officials are issuing a warning about tainted tomatoes after more than 30 people from around New Mexico were infected with salmonella.
The source of the outbreak, which began around May 8, was previously unknown. Health experts said Saturday they now believe tomatoes are the culprit.
Health officials say seven New Mexico counties are affected by the outbreak, including Dona Ana, Socorro, Curry, McKinley, San Juan, Bernalillo and Sandoval.
State experts say uncooked tomatoes tainted with the strain of Salmonella St. Paul are making people sick with what is called salmonellosis. They say most people affected by the illness develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection.
The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most persons recover without treatment.
The New Mexico Department of Health is warning physicians and patients to be aware of the symptoms, which could be a cause for hospitalization for infants and the elderly.
"We have alerted physicians and hospitals around the state to be on the lookout for people presenting with fever and diarrhea and to test those people for salmonella," said Dr. Mike Landen, deputy state epidemiologist with the Department of Health. "We are asking the public to take general precautions to avoid being exposed to salmonella and to seek health care if they develop a severe illness with fever and diarrhea."
The department says some of the infected tomatoes were bought from a Wal-Mart in Las Cruces or Farmington, a Lowe's in Las Cruces or Bashas' in Crownpoint. But they say other stores are probably selling the tomatoes too.
Health officials are still trying to pinpoint which tomatoes are carrying the bacteria.
Doctors recommend washing tomatoes before eating them and cooking any food which may contain salmonella. They also say to wash your hands and any surfaces where food comes into contact.

From Doug Powell at KSU in Barfblog:

A table of tomato-related North American outbreaks is available here. Tomatoes are one type of fresh produce where it appears pathogens like Salmonella can be internalized, which means washing is of little use. The problems need to be prevented on the farm. Regulators and the industry in the past have have released food safety guidelines for tomatoes, but there is a lack of verification; it is unclear if all growers are actually following the guidelines.

Guidelines are a first step, but we need more creative ways to compel everyone, from the person harvesting to the person distributing, to take food safety seriously, even in the absence of an outbreak.

Luedtke, A., Chapman, B. and Powell, D.A. 2003. Implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables. Journal of Food Protection. 66:485-489.
Powell, D.A., Bobadilla-Ruiz, M., Whitfield, A. Griffiths, M.G.. and Luedtke, A. 2002. Development, implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Food Protection. 65: 918- 923.
We also published a book chapter entitled Implementing On-Farm Food Safety Programs in Fruit and Vegetable Cultivation, in the recently published, Improving the Safety of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.

Trust for America's Health - Another Scathing Critique

Doug Powell and the KSU Food Safety Network provide this link to the Web site Trust for America's Health. Here is what their Web site says about themselves:

Trust for America's Health (TFAH) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. From anthrax to asthma, from chemical terrorism to cancer, America is facing a crisis of epidemics. As a nation, we are stuck in a “disease du jour” mentality, which means we lose sight of the bigger picture: building a public health defense that is strong enough to cover us from all points of attack – whether the threats are from a bioterrorist or Mother Nature. By focusing on PREVENTION, PROTECTION, and COMMUNITIES, TFAH is leading the fight to make disease prevention a national priority, from Capitol Hill to Main Street. We know what works. Now we need to build the resolve to get it done.


The group (2004 IRS 990 PDF here) released this news release on April 30 about this 25 page pdf research report:

On April 30, 2008, Trust for America's Health (TFAH) released a new report that identifies major gaps in the nation's food safety system, including obsolete laws, misallocation of resources, and inconsistencies among major food safety agencies.
"Our goal should be reducing the number of Americans who get sick from foodborne illness. But we can't adequately protect people from contaminated foods if we continue to use 100 year-old practices," said Jeff Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. "We need to bring food safety into the 21st century. We have the technology. We're way past due for a smart and strategic upgrade."
TFAH calls for a series of actions to help the nation modernize the food safety system by using strategic inspection practices and state-of-the-art surveillance. While many of the recommendations are focused on government actions, the report finds that fixing food safety will require a collaborative effort by food producers, processors, distributors, retailers, and consumers, combined with strong leadership from the federal, state, and local government. Some of the recommendations include:
Repeal outdated end-product and processing plant inspection mandates and shift the emphasis of inspection practices to the prevention of outbreaks and illnesses through the entire food production process and supply chain;
Create mechanisms that allow inspection practices to keep pace with changes in the industry;
Establish uniform performance standards and best practices that are enforceable through actions including detention and recall authority and civil penalty authority;
Require food safety education for commercial food handlers;
Improve monitoring of foreign imports and international practices; and
Strengthen the FDA with increased funding and aligning resources with high risk threats, with the long-term goal of realigning all federal food safety functions.

No paid sick days in foodservice - bad news

Here is a blog post flagged by Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network about how company policy can work against food safety policy.From the post:

Last week, some 432 people became ill after eating at a Chipotle restaurant in Kent, Ohio because of a norovirus believed to have been brought to work by a sick employee who did not have paid sick days. To highlight the importance of paid sick days to the public health and encourage Ohio legislators to support the paid sick days legislation pending in the Ohio General Assembly, advocates will deliver "Burrito-Grams" (Chipotle burritos bearing messages) to the members of the Commerce and Labor Committee, urging them to support the Ohio Healthy Families Act, HB536.

Attorney's are cashing in against food service outlets that do not have paid sick days for their employees:

This Germ Central article leads with a Carrabba's restaurant incident in Michigan...

"Key in prevention...is rethinking sick-leave policies."

"Attorneys who specialize in food-borne illness complaints, however, contend that established sick-leave policies could offer restaurants some protection in the event of a lawsuit."

"Dave Babcock, an attorney with Marler Clark, a Seattle-based law firm that represented plaintiffs in the 1993 E. coli outbreak at Jack in the Box, pointed to a 1996 norovirus outbreak at the Reno Hilton in Nevada. In that case, a jury awarded six victims punitive damages of $25 million, in part because the casino did not have a sick-leave policy."

marlerclark.com a law firm discusses how an ill food service worker contaminated lettuce for sub sandwiches served by Blimpies at a school luncheon.

6 People with Hepatitis A Ate at Chipotle in La Mesa, California

In most hepatitis A cases, food served to the sickened patrons was contaminated with the feces of a food handler who had hepatitis A. In the case of a restaurant like Chipotle, the most likely scenario was that a sickened food handler contaminated food while cooking or serving the food.

Safe cantaloupe video

Doug Powell, food safety professor at Kansas State University, gives us the whys and wherefores of cantaloupe safety in this video.

Rutgers report on food imports

Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network noted this Rutgers report today: The US Food Import System: Issues, Processes and Proposals; The 44 page pdf offers an examination of current rules and proposed changes to the food import system. From the report's conclusion:

As a result of the well-publicized recalls of both domestic and imported foods, issues of food safety have risen on the public agenda. Increased scrutiny by members of the press, Congress, and consumer groups have revealed a regulatory and inspection system that appears to many to be an underfunded, piecemeal approach to ensuring the safety of the American food supply. Detractors point to an apparently increasing number of food recalls in recent years, the decline in inspections of foods produced both domestically and abroad, and the lack of resources devoted to keeping up with explosive growth of food imports as evidence of a food safety system that is badly in need of reform.
In contrast, supporters of the current system argue that the number of recalls and the amount of food recalled because of contamination is miniscule relative to the total volume of food produced, imported, and consumed in the United States. This, they suggest, is evidence that the current system works well, and that an increasing number of recalls is largely due to a system that has improved through the use of better science, technology, and information sharing. Indeed, they argue that the United States has “the safest food system in the world.” Opponents to the proposed changes, especially from the global forum, see these changes as protectionist tariffs and strategies masked behind the concern of safe food.
While both sides argue over the state of the current system, it is clear that the demands of a globalizing economy and the increasing expectations of consumers worldwide will continue to place new and increasing pressures on both producers and governments to better ensure the safety of foods coming into and leaving the United States. Indeed, a recent survey suggests that American’s overwhelming (“very confident”) confidence in the food supply has dropped considerably (International Food Information Council, 2007).
As with much of the history of food safety laws, regulations, and procedures promulgated in the United States and abroad, change is likely to arise as the result of consumer demands for “the government to do something.” As such, ultimately it is the pressure of consumer confidence (or lack of confidence) in the safety of the food that is likely to drive any reforms in the current system. The question is whether such reforms will be as the result of a rational reconsideration and reorganization of the entire food safety system, or as the consequence of a more incremental approach to improving the existing system.

TK: How much consumers are plugged into the issue of fresh produce safety may be one big factor in how ambitious Congress is in tinkering with the U.S. food safety system. Sadly, consumer confidence and interest in this issue may hinge on whether there are any recalls of leafy greens or other produce items in the next few months. In both respects, we must stay tuned...

Doug Powell - KSU Food Safety Network

Here is the famous Doug Powell of KSU on youtube, talking cows, strawberries, and always, food safety.

There is money in them there food safety tests

There is money to be paid and money to made in food safety tests in coming years, says this article passed along by Doug Powell of the KSU Food Safety Network. From the PR news release:

Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has now added a new report showing that the U.S. market for food safety testing will be worth $2.1 billion in 2007. This is expected to increase to over $2.8 billion by 2012, experiencing a compound average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8%. “Food Safety Testing: The U.S. Market”, available from http://www.reportbuyer.com/go/BCC00173, reports that the market is broken down by contaminant type including pathogens, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), toxins, residues and others. Of these, pathogen testing has the largest share of the market. Valued at nearly $1.8 billion in 2007, this segment is expected to be worth $2.4 billion by 2012, a CAGR of 5.1%.
The second largest segment, GMOs, was worth an estimated $106 million in 2007 and will reach $193 million by 2012, a CAGR of 12.7%. According to the report the potency of toxins and the need to meet domestic and international tolerance limits should propel this segment from a $78 million market in 2007 to $135 million in 2012, a CAGR of 11.6% over the next 5 years. Residue testing will grow from a $67 million market in 2007 to $85 million in 2012.

Taco John's in focus

Doug Powell of the KSU Food Safety Network passes on links to a series of stories about the Taco John's lettuce-related e. coli outbreak. Below are the hyperlinked headlines from The Post Bulletin of Rochester, Minn.

Lettuce is supposed to be good for you -- isn't it?

The lede from this story by Jeff Hansel:

Ahhh, the prospect of a fresh lettuce salad with leafy greens and a light vinaigrette.

But is it safe?

Lettuce is one of the prime culprits in a rise of foodborne illnesses.

Food safety experts and federal authorities have a general idea why: Almost all lettuce-related outbreaks in recent years have either lacked a definitive source or been traced to California's Salinas Valley.

Produce-related outbreaks have made the restaurant dining experience -- or even a meal at home -- something to ponder before picking up the fork.

Source quoted:
Dr. Kirk Smith, supervisor of the Foodborne Disease Unit at the Minnesota Department of Health's Infectious Disease Epidemiology Division



Story#2

Taco John's bears the brunt of E. Coli fallout

The lede from Hansel:

Workers at the Austin restaurant did everything right.

The restaurant had even dazzled health inspectors with food safety expertise while passing an inspection just days before a foodborne illness outbreak in Iowa reverberated at a Taco John's restaurant in Austin, and another in Albert Lea.

A wide range of officials agree that Taco John's did nothing wrong.

Sources quoted:
Terri Kaiser of Albert Lea,
Brian Dixon, vice president of marketing for Taco John's International
Attorney Dave Babcock, of the Marler Clark law firm of Seattle, which is representing clients who ate at Taco John's restaurants.
Margene Gunderson, director of Health Services for Mower County
Dr. Kirk Smith, a veterinarian and supervisor of the Foodborne, Vectorborne and Zoonotic Diseases Unit of the Minnesota Department of Health.

Story #3

Special report: Is the food you eat making you sick?

Lede from Hansel story:

Minnesota set a record for foodborne illness outbreaks in 2006.

Outbreaks of illness from lettuce, spinach, hamburger and tomatoes have many people wondering what's going on.

Source:
Dr. Kirk Smith, supervisor of the foodborne disease unit at the Minnesota Department of Health's Infectious Disease Epidemiology Division.

TK: This series leaned heavily on state and local health authorities. Those officials attempt to explain what has been done relative to food safety, and it is not easy for readers to understand. This graph illustrates the point:

Smith said, without elaborating, that "attempts to make changes have been stopped" by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, "for political reasons."

TK: Communicating to consumers what has been done to enhance produce safety is not an easy task, and the multi-faceted explanation (leafy greens agreement in California, (GAP standards for tomatoes in Florida, etc., etc.) may leave consumers unmoved. Just what exactly is the simple message to deliver to fresh produce consumers about food safety?