Tc
Mon, Sep-25-06, 17:15
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-24-produce-r-
ules_x.htm
Safety advocates, growers debate produce rules
By John Ritter, USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO - As illnesses mount
from tainted California spinach, so do calls for a crackdown
on a loosely regulated, mostly self-policed produce industry
that has avoided mandatory controls. Consumer advocates and
lawmakers urge tougher rules for fields and processing plants,
while investigators chase the source of an elusive
E. coli bacteria strain that has sickened 173 people and
killed a Wisconsin woman.
Growers and packers in the $1.7-billion-a-year spinach and
lettuce market say they can solve a problem that since 1995
has led to 20 known
F. coli outbreaks in the USA. Nine were traced to
California's Salinas Valley, the nation's biggest producer
of leafy greens.
Last week, industry leaders prepared to take a new package of
voluntary guidelines to Washington. Critics say it's time to
hold fresh produce
- loose or bagged - to tough standards like those in the meat
industry, which suffered through and solved its own rash of
E. coli outbreaks in the early 1990s.
"Nobody's really checking, nobody's really auditing or
monitoring that in fact they're using their guidelines," says
Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for
Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group in
Washington. "So we urge that the guidelines be made
mandatory."
The produce industry will "take whatever steps necessary to
ensure food safety," says Tim Chelling, a spokesman for
Western Growers, which represents 3,000 farmers and shippers
in California and Arizona. Mandatory controls "would not be
our preference."
Such rules aren't justified when the source of E. coli in
leafy greens remains a mystery, the industry argues: Why make
growers and packers follow procedures that haven't been shown
to prevent contamination?
In none of the 20 outbreaks did investigators isolate a cause,
according to the federal Food and Drug Administration. The
growers and packers say they follow common sense "best
practices" such as sanitary harvesting, good worker hygiene
and rigorous water-quality control in irrigation and
processing.
More regulations could sidetrack efforts to learn why lettuce
and spinach are susceptible to E. coli, Chelling says. "We're
not doing any kind of knee-jerk reaction to any proposals at
this point."
FDA actions
The FDA, in a stern letter last November, rejected that
rationale: "Claims that 'we cannot take action until we know
the cause' are unacceptable," the letter said.
"We want the industry to do things better," says Jerry
Gillespie, director of the Western Institute for Food
Safety and Security at the University of California-Davis.
"But when it comes time to tell them what 'better' is, it's
very difficult, because we're not quite sure what they're
doing wrong."
The FDA's November letter wasn't its first warning. In 1998,
the agency issued "guidelines" to the growers and shippers. In
February 2004, it "encouraged" the industry to review its
practices. Eight months later, the FDA released a "produce
safety action plan" to fight food-borne illnesses. In November
2005, the FDA expressed "serious concern" and "strongly
encouraged" companies to again review operations. That
prompted California regulators to send their own "strongly
urge" letter.
In August, just before the current outbreak, by far the worst
to hit the leafy-green market, the FDA announced a "lettuce
safety initiative"
- then added spinach as E. coli cases rose this month. Most
spinach is sold prepackaged.
"FDA is really coming in after the fact," DeWaal says.
"They're very much like a fire department rushing in to put
out a fire. We think they should do much more to prevent these
outbreaks."
When E. coli was plaguing meat products - ground beef is still
the leading source of E. coli infections - the meatpacking
industry undertook a "farm-to-table" review of operations and
a lot of "trial and error" research, Gillespie says.
With two key changes - washing cows before slaughter to remove
pathogens and rigorous sanitation in hide removal - E. coli
"substantially subsided," he says.
Leafy greens present a different challenge. "This is a
delicate product. To be attractive and palatable to consumers,
you can't just high-power wash it," he says.
No smoking guns have been found as in meat processing. E.
coli in lettuce and spinach has been traced to fields -
investigators narrowed the search last week to nine farms
in the Salinas Valley, producer of more than half the
nation's fresh spinach. The FDA cautions that the
trace-back may end there.
Investigators focus on the usual suspects: water supplies,
irrigation, leaky septic tanks, manure composting, worker
sanitation and inadequately chlorinated water used to rid
spinach of bacteria.
In the water
The regional water board has found high concentrations of
the virulent
E. coli strain in local streams and rivers, presumably from
manure-tainted runoff.
Farms growing dinner-table crops don't irrigate from rivers,
but a flooded river can spread contaminated water over fields.
Inspectors don't check to see whether fields are dry after
floods or packers' chlorinated washes are OK. They depend on
companies to follow industry guidelines. "FDA almost never
visits farms unless there's an outbreak," DeWaal says.
State inspectors last visited facilities of Natural Selection
Foods, one of the companies that has recalled tainted spinach,
six months ago and found no violations, says Kevin Reilly, a
deputy director in the state health services department.
Until last month, only one of the 20 E. coli outbreaks linked
to leafy greens had involved spinach. In October 2003, 16
people in a San Mateo retirement home got sick, and two died.
State investigators traced the spinach to five fields but
found no "likely source."
Mandatory rules will "level the playing field, so clean
operators aren't penalized for having a safer product," says
Martin Cole, director of the National Center for Food Safety
and Technology at Michigan State University.
The Economic Research Service estimates food-borne illnesses
cost the U.S. economy $7 billion a year. Friday, Sen. Dick
Durbin, D-Ill., renewed his call for a single food-safety
agency to replace a "mismatched, piecemeal approach" that
"could spell disaster."
Twelve federal agencies have roles in food safety.
Among the 173 people stricken by the current E. coli outbreak,
27 developed kidney failure.
"I've talked to families with kids who are probably going to
have neurological damage besides kidney problems, maybe have
to have a transplant," says Seattle lawyer Drew Falkenstein,
who represents some of them. "Huge stuff. It's going to cost a
lot of money and be devastating over their lifetimes."
****
I can't help but think that there is someone on one of those
farms that has a pretty good idea what caused the problem and
is keeping his or her mouth shut while every farmer in the
valley watches their livelihood go down the drain.
TC
ules_x.htm
Safety advocates, growers debate produce rules
By John Ritter, USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO - As illnesses mount
from tainted California spinach, so do calls for a crackdown
on a loosely regulated, mostly self-policed produce industry
that has avoided mandatory controls. Consumer advocates and
lawmakers urge tougher rules for fields and processing plants,
while investigators chase the source of an elusive
E. coli bacteria strain that has sickened 173 people and
killed a Wisconsin woman.
Growers and packers in the $1.7-billion-a-year spinach and
lettuce market say they can solve a problem that since 1995
has led to 20 known
F. coli outbreaks in the USA. Nine were traced to
California's Salinas Valley, the nation's biggest producer
of leafy greens.
Last week, industry leaders prepared to take a new package of
voluntary guidelines to Washington. Critics say it's time to
hold fresh produce
- loose or bagged - to tough standards like those in the meat
industry, which suffered through and solved its own rash of
E. coli outbreaks in the early 1990s.
"Nobody's really checking, nobody's really auditing or
monitoring that in fact they're using their guidelines," says
Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for
Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group in
Washington. "So we urge that the guidelines be made
mandatory."
The produce industry will "take whatever steps necessary to
ensure food safety," says Tim Chelling, a spokesman for
Western Growers, which represents 3,000 farmers and shippers
in California and Arizona. Mandatory controls "would not be
our preference."
Such rules aren't justified when the source of E. coli in
leafy greens remains a mystery, the industry argues: Why make
growers and packers follow procedures that haven't been shown
to prevent contamination?
In none of the 20 outbreaks did investigators isolate a cause,
according to the federal Food and Drug Administration. The
growers and packers say they follow common sense "best
practices" such as sanitary harvesting, good worker hygiene
and rigorous water-quality control in irrigation and
processing.
More regulations could sidetrack efforts to learn why lettuce
and spinach are susceptible to E. coli, Chelling says. "We're
not doing any kind of knee-jerk reaction to any proposals at
this point."
FDA actions
The FDA, in a stern letter last November, rejected that
rationale: "Claims that 'we cannot take action until we know
the cause' are unacceptable," the letter said.
"We want the industry to do things better," says Jerry
Gillespie, director of the Western Institute for Food
Safety and Security at the University of California-Davis.
"But when it comes time to tell them what 'better' is, it's
very difficult, because we're not quite sure what they're
doing wrong."
The FDA's November letter wasn't its first warning. In 1998,
the agency issued "guidelines" to the growers and shippers. In
February 2004, it "encouraged" the industry to review its
practices. Eight months later, the FDA released a "produce
safety action plan" to fight food-borne illnesses. In November
2005, the FDA expressed "serious concern" and "strongly
encouraged" companies to again review operations. That
prompted California regulators to send their own "strongly
urge" letter.
In August, just before the current outbreak, by far the worst
to hit the leafy-green market, the FDA announced a "lettuce
safety initiative"
- then added spinach as E. coli cases rose this month. Most
spinach is sold prepackaged.
"FDA is really coming in after the fact," DeWaal says.
"They're very much like a fire department rushing in to put
out a fire. We think they should do much more to prevent these
outbreaks."
When E. coli was plaguing meat products - ground beef is still
the leading source of E. coli infections - the meatpacking
industry undertook a "farm-to-table" review of operations and
a lot of "trial and error" research, Gillespie says.
With two key changes - washing cows before slaughter to remove
pathogens and rigorous sanitation in hide removal - E. coli
"substantially subsided," he says.
Leafy greens present a different challenge. "This is a
delicate product. To be attractive and palatable to consumers,
you can't just high-power wash it," he says.
No smoking guns have been found as in meat processing. E.
coli in lettuce and spinach has been traced to fields -
investigators narrowed the search last week to nine farms
in the Salinas Valley, producer of more than half the
nation's fresh spinach. The FDA cautions that the
trace-back may end there.
Investigators focus on the usual suspects: water supplies,
irrigation, leaky septic tanks, manure composting, worker
sanitation and inadequately chlorinated water used to rid
spinach of bacteria.
In the water
The regional water board has found high concentrations of
the virulent
E. coli strain in local streams and rivers, presumably from
manure-tainted runoff.
Farms growing dinner-table crops don't irrigate from rivers,
but a flooded river can spread contaminated water over fields.
Inspectors don't check to see whether fields are dry after
floods or packers' chlorinated washes are OK. They depend on
companies to follow industry guidelines. "FDA almost never
visits farms unless there's an outbreak," DeWaal says.
State inspectors last visited facilities of Natural Selection
Foods, one of the companies that has recalled tainted spinach,
six months ago and found no violations, says Kevin Reilly, a
deputy director in the state health services department.
Until last month, only one of the 20 E. coli outbreaks linked
to leafy greens had involved spinach. In October 2003, 16
people in a San Mateo retirement home got sick, and two died.
State investigators traced the spinach to five fields but
found no "likely source."
Mandatory rules will "level the playing field, so clean
operators aren't penalized for having a safer product," says
Martin Cole, director of the National Center for Food Safety
and Technology at Michigan State University.
The Economic Research Service estimates food-borne illnesses
cost the U.S. economy $7 billion a year. Friday, Sen. Dick
Durbin, D-Ill., renewed his call for a single food-safety
agency to replace a "mismatched, piecemeal approach" that
"could spell disaster."
Twelve federal agencies have roles in food safety.
Among the 173 people stricken by the current E. coli outbreak,
27 developed kidney failure.
"I've talked to families with kids who are probably going to
have neurological damage besides kidney problems, maybe have
to have a transplant," says Seattle lawyer Drew Falkenstein,
who represents some of them. "Huge stuff. It's going to cost a
lot of money and be devastating over their lifetimes."
****
I can't help but think that there is someone on one of those
farms that has a pretty good idea what caused the problem and
is keeping his or her mouth shut while every farmer in the
valley watches their livelihood go down the drain.
TC