September 19, 2007. Topic: Food Safety
California Should Not Wait for More Deaths from E. Coli Before Policing
Leafy Greens Industry
Time for California to Enter the 21st Century
By Frank D. Russo
Fortunately, as far as we know, no one has died, and there are no reported illnesses from the latest discovery of the dangerous E. coli bacteria found in packages of Dole lettuce by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Monday that has resulted in a recall of lettuce in Canada and Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and other states here in the U.S. The mix of lettuce that was recalled was not sold in California.
We now know, only as of yesterday, that two of the lettuces in this mix produced in Ohio came from the Salinas Valley. That was reported late yesterday by the Oakland Tribune and came as an admission by Dole Fresh Vegetables president Eric Schwartz. But in the article, Schwartz refuses to identify the fields where the lettuce was grown, because of an ongoing investigation by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
As we wait for more definitive information on the source of the deadly E. coli, Dean Florez, Chair of the California Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness, is clearly frustrated that a years worth of industry-professed progress since the deadly E. coli outbreaks of 2006 has failed to create a traceback system that can immediately identify where the contaminated produce originated.
Dole was on TV in California this spring saying they had a computer chip in each box that would allow them to trace a head of lettuce to a 30x50 space within a field, yet here we are days into a recall impacting industry and consumers in two nations, and we have only narrowed the source down to three states, Florez said. There is quite a bit of discrepancy between what consumers are being promised and what is being delivered when it comes to food safety.
Ultimately, Florez noted, it was once again government -- and not the market forces touted by industry -- which caught the contaminated produce once it had reached stores in Canada and several U.S. states, hopefully containing an outbreak before anyone became seriously ill. Infection by E. coli bacteria can lead to permanent kidney damage or even death, particularly in vulnerable populations such as the elderly and very young children.
Monday, Florez called on the secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture for answers. Along with the rest of us, he's still waiting. The silence from the CDFA is deafening. And there is nothing I can find on their site.
The lack of information is exemplified by a comment by John Baillie, a local packer in Monday's Monterey Herald:"We're all walking on this ice already because they don't even know where the E. coli comes from. We're on pins and needles, and we don't need this."
After two outbreaks of E. coli from California leafy greens killed at least three people and sickened hundreds nationwide in 2006, Florez authored legislation to regulate the industry, establishing clear standards for best agricultural practices, increasing in-field inspections and creating the standard for an effective traceback system to prevent an industry-wide economic hit such as was the case in 2006.
Florez has a package of legislation that has already passed the California
Senate but is bottled up in the Assembly Agriculture Committee, just a few
votes from going to the Governor:
SB 200 allows the Department of Health Services to recall or destroy
produce that may pose a threat to public health and creates an inspection
program to proactively address the threat of outbreaks.
SB 201 mandates good agricultural practices for growers of leafy greens--from worker hygiene to the creation of buffer zones between fields and potential contamination sources--such as sources that may have been responsible in a 2006 outbreak.
SB 202 calls for the creation of a traceback system that would spare growers from the financial pain felt in 2006 when all leafy greens were suspect due to the actions of one small farm. Under an effective traceback system, the specifics lots containing suspect produce could be isolated and destroyed.
The leafy green industry fought the legislation and pushed for a voluntary food safety program. Despite the industrys previous failure to act on multiple warnings from the Food and Drug Administration regarding nearly two dozen outbreaks, the Assembly Agriculture Committee shelved Florezs legislation in favor of giving industry one more chance to self-police.
In the end, it is government which is ultimately responsible for protecting the health of the public and which has proven itself the last line of defense between industry and consumers, Florez said, adding, We shouldnt be constrained in our efforts to do our job of protecting the public by a hodge-podge of standards and practices by individual companies whose end goal is profit.
I am very concerned that any produce subject to the leafy greens marketing
agreement could make it not only to store shelves but into a foreign
nations distribution system before contamination was found, Florez said.
If this is California produce, we will expect to see that an effective
traceback system was in place to allow us to determine exactly what
happened and who is responsible, as promised in the LGMA. Im sure the
public is as interested as I am in seeing what type of penalties will be
applied under the marketing agreement to effect real change in industry
behavior.
Less than three weeks ago, California grower Metz Fresh recalled 8000
cartons of spinach -- which had already been delivered to stores -- over
concerns of salmonella contamination.
Last year, it was Dole spinach from the Salinas Valley area that was the
source of an E. coli bacteria outbreak that killed 3 people and sickened
205 around the country.
The Canadian government has special requirements for the importation of
leafy greens from California which includes a declaration that it is a
signatory of the voluntary Leafy Green Marketing Agreement. It is unclear
if that has been complied with here since the lettuce was processed in Ohio.
Here is part of Florez's letter to the Secretary of the California Dept. of
Food & Agriculture:
"I am writing to express my continued concern regarding the safety of leafy
green produce grown in California. Less than three weeks have passed since
the recent salmonella contamination incident, which the Department has yet
to provide adequate response to the Committees inquiry. Today, the
Canadian Government has issued a nationwide recall of Dole Brand ready to
eat salad mix due to possible E. coli 0157:H7 contamination. It is my
understanding that the recalled produce was grown in the United States.
"I am concerned because the Canadian Government recently announced that it
would only allow the import of California leafy green produce that is
subject to the LGMA. The issuance of a nationwide recall by the Canadian
Government is also significant because during the last E. coli 0157:H7
spinach outbreak, the Canadian Government closed their market to foreign
leafy green produce. This caused a significant negative impact on
California growers. As we move forward it is clear that there is a serious
question of confidence in Californias leafy green produce industry.
"Accordingly, please identify whether the produce subject to the Canadian Governments national recall was grown in California. This should be easy to determine quickly given the LGMA requires the use of a trace-back system. This information should be provided to the Committee immediately upon determination."
We have published an article by the Director of the West Coast Office of Consumers Union: California Leafy Green Industrys Marketing Agreement Will Not Ensure Nations Salad Bowl is Safe. That article is one of many on the E. coli and other outbreaks from California grown leafy green that can be found under Food Safetyfrom the California Progress Report.
It's time for passage of the Florez legislation and for the state to play an active role on food safety. We cannot afford to wait for a future outbreak that will kill. This is in line with the reform started by Theodore Roosevelt and his contemporaries and spawned by Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle a century ago. It is hard to believe that in the 21st Century, in California, that there are those who are so anti-government in office that they will not have our state perform one of it's most basic functions--protect Californians and others basic health in the food we eat.
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/09/california_shou_4.html
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Editorial: Think your spinach is safe? Think again
The Roanoke Times
Editorial: Think your spinach is safe? Think again
After last year's E. coli outbreak, the federal government failed to step
up with a more stringent inspection and safety program.
Fresh spinach disappeared briefly from grocery store shelves and restaurant
menus last year after public health investigators blamed the fresh greens
for a deadly E. coli outbreak.
Then stores restocked, spinach dishes reappeared and American diners
gradually returned to one of their presumably healthier eating habits.
After three people had died and 200 more had been sickened, surely America's vast
regulatory safety net had caught the problem and fixed it.
This isn't China, after all.
Oh, the public cried out after federal inspectors found drug-tainted
seafood among Chinese imports and U.S. distributors discovered lead paint on many
Chinese-made toys. American consumers expect better than the lax-to-nonexistent
safety standards of China and other developing nations.
U.S. regulators wouldn't let domestically grown spinach back on the market
without stepping up safeguards against potentially lethal contamination.
Right?
Well, yes, they would. This, according to an Associated Press investigation
reported last week, is what actually followed the 2006 spinach scare that
affected consumers across the nation:
Inspectors did find the source of the E. coli outbreak. It was spinach
grown in the Salinas Valley of central California, "the nation's salad bowl."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did issue a warning not to eat
spinach for a couple of weeks.
Congress briefly pondered, or someone in Congress at least mentioned,
proposals to have more frequent federal inspections of growers and
processors of salad greens.
In California, a new inspection system went into effect.
People who ate spinach before the scare started eating spinach again.
And, as far as safety, nothing much changed at all.
The California legislature lost momentum for passing mandatory regulations
once people stopped dying and scary headlines disappeared. The new state
inspection system fell victim to industry lobbyists who made sure safety
standards were merely voluntary guidelines. And salad growers and processors face no fines or state sanctions if they violate the guidelines.
And how are these friendly suggestions working out for consumers? Last
month, a California produce company had to recall bagged fresh spinach it
had shipped all across the continental U.S. and to Canada. The spinach tested
positive for salmonella. On Monday, a voluntary recall of Dole salad mix
was issued after a bag tested positive for E. coli.
The federal government, of course, has the larger role to play in food
safety. Duties are split, though, between the FDA and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, setting up bureaucratic competition for the too few dollars
available to do the work behind the regulations: inspections.
From 1990 to 2004, AP reported, produce has caused nearly twice as many
multistate outbreaks of food-borne illnesses as meat. But the USDA gets
almost twice the funding for inspecting meat as the FDA gets to inspect produce.
Just throwing money at a problem doesn't always work, as the anti-tax
rhetoric of the day goes. But, you know, sometimes it does.
_http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-132528_
(http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-132528)
Editorial: Think your spinach is safe? Think again
After last year's E. coli outbreak, the federal government failed to step
up with a more stringent inspection and safety program.
Fresh spinach disappeared briefly from grocery store shelves and restaurant
menus last year after public health investigators blamed the fresh greens
for a deadly E. coli outbreak.
Then stores restocked, spinach dishes reappeared and American diners
gradually returned to one of their presumably healthier eating habits.
After three people had died and 200 more had been sickened, surely America's vast
regulatory safety net had caught the problem and fixed it.
This isn't China, after all.
Oh, the public cried out after federal inspectors found drug-tainted
seafood among Chinese imports and U.S. distributors discovered lead paint on many
Chinese-made toys. American consumers expect better than the lax-to-nonexistent
safety standards of China and other developing nations.
U.S. regulators wouldn't let domestically grown spinach back on the market
without stepping up safeguards against potentially lethal contamination.
Right?
Well, yes, they would. This, according to an Associated Press investigation
reported last week, is what actually followed the 2006 spinach scare that
affected consumers across the nation:
Inspectors did find the source of the E. coli outbreak. It was spinach
grown in the Salinas Valley of central California, "the nation's salad bowl."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did issue a warning not to eat
spinach for a couple of weeks.
Congress briefly pondered, or someone in Congress at least mentioned,
proposals to have more frequent federal inspections of growers and
processors of salad greens.
In California, a new inspection system went into effect.
People who ate spinach before the scare started eating spinach again.
And, as far as safety, nothing much changed at all.
The California legislature lost momentum for passing mandatory regulations
once people stopped dying and scary headlines disappeared. The new state
inspection system fell victim to industry lobbyists who made sure safety
standards were merely voluntary guidelines. And salad growers and processors face no fines or state sanctions if they violate the guidelines.
And how are these friendly suggestions working out for consumers? Last
month, a California produce company had to recall bagged fresh spinach it
had shipped all across the continental U.S. and to Canada. The spinach tested
positive for salmonella. On Monday, a voluntary recall of Dole salad mix
was issued after a bag tested positive for E. coli.
The federal government, of course, has the larger role to play in food
safety. Duties are split, though, between the FDA and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, setting up bureaucratic competition for the too few dollars
available to do the work behind the regulations: inspections.
From 1990 to 2004, AP reported, produce has caused nearly twice as many
multistate outbreaks of food-borne illnesses as meat. But the USDA gets
almost twice the funding for inspecting meat as the FDA gets to inspect produce.
Just throwing money at a problem doesn't always work, as the anti-tax
rhetoric of the day goes. But, you know, sometimes it does.
_http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-132528_
(http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-132528)
COUNTY LETTUCE IN RECALLED SALAD BAGS
Mixed with greens from Colorado, Ohio
By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 09/19/2007 01:27:28 AM PDT
Two of the three lettuce varieties in a Dole bagged salad mix, recalled this week because of the presence of E. coli, were grown in the Salinas Valley. Dole Fresh Vegetables president Eric Schwartz confirmed Tuesday that the romaine and green leaf
lettuce in its Hearts Delight salad mix were farmed locally and mixed with butter lettuce from Ohio and romaine from growers in Colorado.
The lettuces, recalled in nine states and in Canada, were processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, said Schwartz. Eighty-eight cases — 528 bags — were distributed in Canada, and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags were distributed in the U.S.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Dole Food Co. issued a voluntary recall Monday, a day after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued an advisory in
Canada.
No illnesses have been reported in Canada, said Garfield Balsom, a spokesman for Canadian Food Inspection Agency Food Recall and Emergency Response. Dole has received no reports of illnesses.
While it was initially believed the product was distributed nationally across Canada, officials Tuesday narrowed the scope of the recall to eastern Canada. Balsom said the salad was shipped only to Quebec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces.
He said the agency would continue to monitor stores to verify that the recalled salad has been removed from shelves.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend became contaminated and to see if other products
are affected.
"We'll go back and find the origins and determine where the product was produced and packaged," Balsom said.
Schwartz said the company, which is based in Monterey, has turned over paperwork detailing field audits, field and harvest data and shipping information to FDA investigators, and is cooperating with the agency.
The voluntary recall affects all packages of Dole's Hearts Delight salad mix sold in the United States and Canada with a "best if used by" date of Sept. 19, 2007, and a production code of A24924A or A24924B, Dole said.
The product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces in Canada, and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee starting about Sept. 8, said Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman.
Schwartz declined to identify the fields where the lettuce was grown, citing the ongoing FDA investigation.
The company was notified of the preliminary test results late Friday. Schwartz said the company notified the FDA when a second test confirmed the presence of E. coli on Sunday.
Schwartz said Dole has hired an independent consultant to verify that the company followed its prescribed washing and growing processes.
Schwartz declined to place a dollar value on the recalled produce.
Dole Food Co., the parent company of Dole Fresh Vegetables, reported 2006 revenues of $6.2 billion.
On Tuesday, an industry group representing small farm operations issued harsh criticism against the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, calling the voluntary program ineffective and skewed in favor of big business.
"This shows that the industry rules are not preventing E. coli 0157:H7 recalls or outbreaks in fresh-cut, processed salad," said Judith Redmond, board president
of Community Alliance with Family Farmers and partner at Full Belly Farm in Yolo County. "The industry's measures are ineffective because we don't know exactly
how E. coli 0157:H7 is spreading. What we do know is that these recalls and outbreaks are not occurring in traditional, fresh leafy greens. The industry needs to focus their rules on the problem in processed salad, not on traditional leafy greens."
According to the organization, processed bagged salads have been at the center of most reported illnesses traced to leafy greens. It is the centralized washing and packaging of mixed produce from different farms that increases risks of cross-contamination, so efforts to stem the spread of E. coli 0157:H7 should focus on the processing and bagging industry, according to the group.
Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach sold under the Dole brand and processed by Natural Selection Foods LLC was blamed for the deaths
of three people and for sickening hundreds of people across the U.S.
Authorities identified a San Benito County cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.
FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the agency was talking to Westlake Village-based Dole about the situation.
An inspector from the Ohio agriculture department was at the plant Monday and Tuesday, said agency spokeswoman Cindy Brown. Tests performed on lettuce at the plant by Dole and the FDA came back negative for E. coli, she said.
"They have been to our plant and they will visit the growers," said Ordman.
The salad mix subject to the recall may have been available in the U.S. in states other than the nine identified by Dole because in some areas the product was distributed by a wholesaler with clients in overlapping markets, Ordman said.
Food contaminated with this strain of E. coli may not look or smell spoiled, but health officials say the bacteria can cause life-threatening illnesses.
Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Some people can have seizures or strokes and some may need blood transfusions and kidney dialysis, while others may live with permanent kidney damage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
See the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition guidelines at
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/prodsafe.html.
By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 09/19/2007 01:27:28 AM PDT
Two of the three lettuce varieties in a Dole bagged salad mix, recalled this week because of the presence of E. coli, were grown in the Salinas Valley. Dole Fresh Vegetables president Eric Schwartz confirmed Tuesday that the romaine and green leaf
lettuce in its Hearts Delight salad mix were farmed locally and mixed with butter lettuce from Ohio and romaine from growers in Colorado.
The lettuces, recalled in nine states and in Canada, were processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, said Schwartz. Eighty-eight cases — 528 bags — were distributed in Canada, and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags were distributed in the U.S.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Dole Food Co. issued a voluntary recall Monday, a day after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued an advisory in
Canada.
No illnesses have been reported in Canada, said Garfield Balsom, a spokesman for Canadian Food Inspection Agency Food Recall and Emergency Response. Dole has received no reports of illnesses.
While it was initially believed the product was distributed nationally across Canada, officials Tuesday narrowed the scope of the recall to eastern Canada. Balsom said the salad was shipped only to Quebec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces.
He said the agency would continue to monitor stores to verify that the recalled salad has been removed from shelves.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend became contaminated and to see if other products
are affected.
"We'll go back and find the origins and determine where the product was produced and packaged," Balsom said.
Schwartz said the company, which is based in Monterey, has turned over paperwork detailing field audits, field and harvest data and shipping information to FDA investigators, and is cooperating with the agency.
The voluntary recall affects all packages of Dole's Hearts Delight salad mix sold in the United States and Canada with a "best if used by" date of Sept. 19, 2007, and a production code of A24924A or A24924B, Dole said.
The product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces in Canada, and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee starting about Sept. 8, said Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman.
Schwartz declined to identify the fields where the lettuce was grown, citing the ongoing FDA investigation.
The company was notified of the preliminary test results late Friday. Schwartz said the company notified the FDA when a second test confirmed the presence of E. coli on Sunday.
Schwartz said Dole has hired an independent consultant to verify that the company followed its prescribed washing and growing processes.
Schwartz declined to place a dollar value on the recalled produce.
Dole Food Co., the parent company of Dole Fresh Vegetables, reported 2006 revenues of $6.2 billion.
On Tuesday, an industry group representing small farm operations issued harsh criticism against the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, calling the voluntary program ineffective and skewed in favor of big business.
"This shows that the industry rules are not preventing E. coli 0157:H7 recalls or outbreaks in fresh-cut, processed salad," said Judith Redmond, board president
of Community Alliance with Family Farmers and partner at Full Belly Farm in Yolo County. "The industry's measures are ineffective because we don't know exactly
how E. coli 0157:H7 is spreading. What we do know is that these recalls and outbreaks are not occurring in traditional, fresh leafy greens. The industry needs to focus their rules on the problem in processed salad, not on traditional leafy greens."
According to the organization, processed bagged salads have been at the center of most reported illnesses traced to leafy greens. It is the centralized washing and packaging of mixed produce from different farms that increases risks of cross-contamination, so efforts to stem the spread of E. coli 0157:H7 should focus on the processing and bagging industry, according to the group.
Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach sold under the Dole brand and processed by Natural Selection Foods LLC was blamed for the deaths
of three people and for sickening hundreds of people across the U.S.
Authorities identified a San Benito County cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.
FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the agency was talking to Westlake Village-based Dole about the situation.
An inspector from the Ohio agriculture department was at the plant Monday and Tuesday, said agency spokeswoman Cindy Brown. Tests performed on lettuce at the plant by Dole and the FDA came back negative for E. coli, she said.
"They have been to our plant and they will visit the growers," said Ordman.
The salad mix subject to the recall may have been available in the U.S. in states other than the nine identified by Dole because in some areas the product was distributed by a wholesaler with clients in overlapping markets, Ordman said.
Food contaminated with this strain of E. coli may not look or smell spoiled, but health officials say the bacteria can cause life-threatening illnesses.
Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Some people can have seizures or strokes and some may need blood transfusions and kidney dialysis, while others may live with permanent kidney damage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
See the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition guidelines at
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/prodsafe.html.
Florez upset exact source of E. coli not known
The Bakersfield Californian | Tuesday, Sep 18 2007
11:25 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 11:29 PM
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, expressed
frustration Tuesday that a year after deadly E. coli
outbreaks, there's no system to immediately identify
where contaminated produce came from.
Florez has asked for -- and says he's still waiting to
hear back on -- the source of lettuce responsible for
a recent international recall of U.S.-grown Dole-brand
bagged salad mix.
"Dole was on TV in California this spring saying they
had a computer chip in each box that would allow them
to trace a head of lettuce to a 30-by-50-foot space
within a field, yet here we are days into a recall
impacting industry and consumers in two nations, and
we have only narrowed the source down to three
states," he said in a news release. "There is quite a
bit of discrepancy between what consumers are being
promised and what is being delivered when it comes to
food safety."
Last year, Florez wrote legislation establishing
standards for best agricultural practices, increasing
field inspections and starting a traceback system.
The leafy green industry instead argued for a
"voluntary food safety program" and an Assembly
committee shelved legislation to give industry a
chance to self-regulate, he said.
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/239923.html
11:25 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 11:29 PM
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, expressed
frustration Tuesday that a year after deadly E. coli
outbreaks, there's no system to immediately identify
where contaminated produce came from.
Florez has asked for -- and says he's still waiting to
hear back on -- the source of lettuce responsible for
a recent international recall of U.S.-grown Dole-brand
bagged salad mix.
"Dole was on TV in California this spring saying they
had a computer chip in each box that would allow them
to trace a head of lettuce to a 30-by-50-foot space
within a field, yet here we are days into a recall
impacting industry and consumers in two nations, and
we have only narrowed the source down to three
states," he said in a news release. "There is quite a
bit of discrepancy between what consumers are being
promised and what is being delivered when it comes to
food safety."
Last year, Florez wrote legislation establishing
standards for best agricultural practices, increasing
field inspections and starting a traceback system.
The leafy green industry instead argued for a
"voluntary food safety program" and an Assembly
committee shelved legislation to give industry a
chance to self-regulate, he said.
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/239923.html
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
E. COLI FOUND; DOLE RECALLS SALADS
Packages pulled in Canada, U.S.; no illnesses reported
By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer
Monterey County Herald
Article Last Updated:
E. coli contamination in a bag of packaged salad in Canada has prompted a recall of certain Dole salads in the United States and Canada.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a warning late Sunday against eating Dole brand Hearts Delight lettuce salad, a ready-to-eat blend of romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts, after a sample taken from a store in Canada tested positive for E. coli.
Dole Fresh Vegetables, based in Monterey, extended the voluntary recall to U.S. consumers on Monday afternoon, through a statement on its Web site.
No illnesses had been reported Monday, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Dole officials.
The voluntary recall involves all salad bearing the label "Dole Hearts Delight" sold in the U.S. and Canada with a "best if used by" date of Sept. 19, 2007, and a production code of "A24924A" or "A24924B" stamped on the package. The "best if used by (BIUB)" code date is in the upper right hand corner of the front of the bag. The salad was sold in plastic bags of 227 grams in Canada and a half pound in the U.S., with UPC code 071430-01038.
The product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada, and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and neighboring U.S. states starting the weekend before last, said Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman.
The romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio, then processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, said Ordman.
Eighty-eight cases — or 528 bags — were distributed in Canada and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags in the U.S., he said.
Infection with E. coli often leads to bloody diarrhea, and occasionally to kidney failure, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Concern for safety|
"Our overriding concern is for consumer safety," Eric Schwartz, president of the Dole Fresh Vegetable division of Dole Food Co., said in a statement. He said the company was working with U.S. and Canadian health agencies, as well as those in various states.
The Food and Drug Administration was talking with Westlake Village-based Dole about the situation, agency spokesman Michael Herndon said.
The Canadian agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend, which is imported into Canada, became contaminated and to see if any other products are affected, spokesman Garfield Balsom said.
The Dole recall is the second major recall in less than a month involving fresh packaged leafy greens. King City-based Metz Fresh LLC issued a voluntary recall involving 8,118 cases of bagged spinach on Aug. 28 after lab tests confirmed the presence of salmonella. No illnesses were reported in that recall, which involved 68,000 pounds of spinach and was handled in conjunction with U.S. and state agencies.
Metz Fresh President Andy Cummings was unavailable for comment Monday.
But the company's publicist, Greg Larsen, said the investigation as to what caused the contamination continues.
Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach was blamed for the deaths of three people and for sickening hundreds more across the U.S. State and federal authorities ultimately identified a Central California cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.
John Baillie of Baillie-TriCounty Packing said the Canadian government's advisory is a blow to an industry already struggling under seemingly insurmountable odds these days.
"We're all walking on this ice already because they don't even know where the E. coli comes from," said Baillie. "We're on pins and needles, and we don't need this."
Senator wants information|
One of those accusers, Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness, called upon California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura for details as to whether the lettuce was grown in California and if the grower was a signatory to the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, a set of best practices developed by the industry to safeguard food safety.
Florez has been critical of what he calls the California leafy green industry's "self-regulatory" plan, having drafted legislation to regulate the industry following last year's widespread spinach recall.
"If this is California produce, we will expect to see that an effective traceback system was in place to allow us to determine exactly what happened and who is responsible," as promised in the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, Florez said in a statement. "I'm sure the public is as interested as I am in seeing what type of penalties will be applied under the marketing agreement to effect real change in industry behavior."
But Monterey County Farm Bureau executive director Bob Perkins said Florez isn't providing any real solutions.
"He is not offering anything that would improve food safety," he said.
Perkins charged that Florez's call for fundamental change and penalties ignores the fact that the industry already has undergone radical changes since last year's E. coli outbreak in spinach. The Canadian recall, as well as last month's recall of Metz Fresh spinach, were the result of product testing rather than reported illnesses, he said.
"Nobody in the system is willing to take changes," said Perkins. "We're all reacting by possibly going overboard, but that's another indication as to how things have changed since a year or more ago."
He said government has the ability to punish companies for negligence; otherwise, consumers ultimately levy judgment against a company or industry by their buying choices.
"He's already talking about penalties before we have any idea where the bacteria came from," said Perkins. "Dole's brand name is already being punished by this. It's hurting their brand, it's hurting their value, it's taking real value out of their pockets."
"That's a bad bug, and I'm sorry to see that in the food supply anywhere," said Perkins. "I certainly hope that no one has become ill because of this bacteria."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Marie Vasari can be reached at 646-4478 or mvasari@montereyherald.com.http://www.dole.com/CompanyInfo/SafeSalad/LatestNews_PR.jsp
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_6925229?nclick_check=1
By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer
Monterey County Herald
Article Last Updated:
E. coli contamination in a bag of packaged salad in Canada has prompted a recall of certain Dole salads in the United States and Canada.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a warning late Sunday against eating Dole brand Hearts Delight lettuce salad, a ready-to-eat blend of romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts, after a sample taken from a store in Canada tested positive for E. coli.
Dole Fresh Vegetables, based in Monterey, extended the voluntary recall to U.S. consumers on Monday afternoon, through a statement on its Web site.
No illnesses had been reported Monday, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Dole officials.
The voluntary recall involves all salad bearing the label "Dole Hearts Delight" sold in the U.S. and Canada with a "best if used by" date of Sept. 19, 2007, and a production code of "A24924A" or "A24924B" stamped on the package. The "best if used by (BIUB)" code date is in the upper right hand corner of the front of the bag. The salad was sold in plastic bags of 227 grams in Canada and a half pound in the U.S., with UPC code 071430-01038.
The product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada, and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and neighboring U.S. states starting the weekend before last, said Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman.
The romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio, then processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, said Ordman.
Eighty-eight cases — or 528 bags — were distributed in Canada and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags in the U.S., he said.
Infection with E. coli often leads to bloody diarrhea, and occasionally to kidney failure, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Concern for safety|
"Our overriding concern is for consumer safety," Eric Schwartz, president of the Dole Fresh Vegetable division of Dole Food Co., said in a statement. He said the company was working with U.S. and Canadian health agencies, as well as those in various states.
The Food and Drug Administration was talking with Westlake Village-based Dole about the situation, agency spokesman Michael Herndon said.
The Canadian agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend, which is imported into Canada, became contaminated and to see if any other products are affected, spokesman Garfield Balsom said.
The Dole recall is the second major recall in less than a month involving fresh packaged leafy greens. King City-based Metz Fresh LLC issued a voluntary recall involving 8,118 cases of bagged spinach on Aug. 28 after lab tests confirmed the presence of salmonella. No illnesses were reported in that recall, which involved 68,000 pounds of spinach and was handled in conjunction with U.S. and state agencies.
Metz Fresh President Andy Cummings was unavailable for comment Monday.
But the company's publicist, Greg Larsen, said the investigation as to what caused the contamination continues.
Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach was blamed for the deaths of three people and for sickening hundreds more across the U.S. State and federal authorities ultimately identified a Central California cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.
John Baillie of Baillie-TriCounty Packing said the Canadian government's advisory is a blow to an industry already struggling under seemingly insurmountable odds these days.
"We're all walking on this ice already because they don't even know where the E. coli comes from," said Baillie. "We're on pins and needles, and we don't need this."
Senator wants information|
One of those accusers, Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness, called upon California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura for details as to whether the lettuce was grown in California and if the grower was a signatory to the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, a set of best practices developed by the industry to safeguard food safety.
Florez has been critical of what he calls the California leafy green industry's "self-regulatory" plan, having drafted legislation to regulate the industry following last year's widespread spinach recall.
"If this is California produce, we will expect to see that an effective traceback system was in place to allow us to determine exactly what happened and who is responsible," as promised in the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, Florez said in a statement. "I'm sure the public is as interested as I am in seeing what type of penalties will be applied under the marketing agreement to effect real change in industry behavior."
But Monterey County Farm Bureau executive director Bob Perkins said Florez isn't providing any real solutions.
"He is not offering anything that would improve food safety," he said.
Perkins charged that Florez's call for fundamental change and penalties ignores the fact that the industry already has undergone radical changes since last year's E. coli outbreak in spinach. The Canadian recall, as well as last month's recall of Metz Fresh spinach, were the result of product testing rather than reported illnesses, he said.
"Nobody in the system is willing to take changes," said Perkins. "We're all reacting by possibly going overboard, but that's another indication as to how things have changed since a year or more ago."
He said government has the ability to punish companies for negligence; otherwise, consumers ultimately levy judgment against a company or industry by their buying choices.
"He's already talking about penalties before we have any idea where the bacteria came from," said Perkins. "Dole's brand name is already being punished by this. It's hurting their brand, it's hurting their value, it's taking real value out of their pockets."
"That's a bad bug, and I'm sorry to see that in the food supply anywhere," said Perkins. "I certainly hope that no one has become ill because of this bacteria."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Marie Vasari can be reached at 646-4478 or mvasari@montereyherald.com.http://www.dole.com/CompanyInfo/SafeSalad/LatestNews_PR.jsp
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_6925229?nclick_check=1
Dole recalls salad mix in E. coli scare
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 18, 6:37 AM ET
A package of Dole salad mix that tested positive for E. coli has triggered a recall in at least nine states, prompting new produce fears almost exactly a year after a nationwide spinach scare.
The tainted bag of Dole's Hearts Delight salad mix was sold at a store in Canada, officials said. Neither Canadian health officials nor Dole Food Co. have received reports of anyone getting sick from the product.
The voluntary recall, issued Monday, affects all packages of Hearts Delight sold in the United States and Canada with a "best if used by" date of September 19, 2007, and a production code of "A24924A" or "A24924B," the company said.
Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach sold under the Dole brand was blamed for the deaths of three people and for sickening hundreds more
across the U.S. Authorities ultimately identified a central California cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.
The latest recall affects packages sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee starting around Sept. 8, said Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman.
Eighty-eight cases — or 528 bags — were distributed in Canada, and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags were distributed in the U.S., he said. FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the agency was talking with Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole about the situation.
The romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio, then processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, according to Ordman.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend became contaminated and to see if any other products
are affected, spokesman Garfield Balsom said. "We'll go back and find the origins and determine where the product was produced and packaged," Balsom said.
Dole contacted the FDA on Sunday night, as soon as the company got word of the contaminated bag of salad in Canada, said Ordman. "They have been to our plant and
they will visit the growers," he said.
The salad mix subject to the recall may have been available in the U.S. in states other than the nine already identified by Dole because in some areas the product was distributed by a wholesaler with clients in overlapping markets, Ordman said.
Food contaminated with this strain of E. coli may not look or smell spoiled but health officials say the bacteria can cause life-threatening illnesses.
Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea; some people can have seizures or strokes and some may need blood transfusions and kidney dialysis,
while others may live with permanent kidney damage.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lettuce_recall;_ylt=AiFCLvhID1Hy3RJyHDWIukwDW7oF
Tue Sep 18, 6:37 AM ET
A package of Dole salad mix that tested positive for E. coli has triggered a recall in at least nine states, prompting new produce fears almost exactly a year after a nationwide spinach scare.
The tainted bag of Dole's Hearts Delight salad mix was sold at a store in Canada, officials said. Neither Canadian health officials nor Dole Food Co. have received reports of anyone getting sick from the product.
The voluntary recall, issued Monday, affects all packages of Hearts Delight sold in the United States and Canada with a "best if used by" date of September 19, 2007, and a production code of "A24924A" or "A24924B," the company said.
Last year, an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged baby spinach sold under the Dole brand was blamed for the deaths of three people and for sickening hundreds more
across the U.S. Authorities ultimately identified a central California cattle ranch next to spinach fields belonging to one of Dole's suppliers as being the source of the bacteria.
The latest recall affects packages sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee starting around Sept. 8, said Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman.
Eighty-eight cases — or 528 bags — were distributed in Canada, and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags were distributed in the U.S., he said. FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the agency was talking with Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole about the situation.
The romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio, then processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, according to Ordman.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it would be looking to find out at what point the salad blend became contaminated and to see if any other products
are affected, spokesman Garfield Balsom said. "We'll go back and find the origins and determine where the product was produced and packaged," Balsom said.
Dole contacted the FDA on Sunday night, as soon as the company got word of the contaminated bag of salad in Canada, said Ordman. "They have been to our plant and
they will visit the growers," he said.
The salad mix subject to the recall may have been available in the U.S. in states other than the nine already identified by Dole because in some areas the product was distributed by a wholesaler with clients in overlapping markets, Ordman said.
Food contaminated with this strain of E. coli may not look or smell spoiled but health officials say the bacteria can cause life-threatening illnesses.
Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea; some people can have seizures or strokes and some may need blood transfusions and kidney dialysis,
while others may live with permanent kidney damage.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lettuce_recall;_ylt=AiFCLvhID1Hy3RJyHDWIukwDW7oF
Sen. Florez singles out self-regulating leafy greens industry
Last Update: 9/17 7:17 pm
Following Monday’s salad recall in the U.S. and Canada, Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) asked the California Department of Food and Agriculture if those leafy greens came from California.
Less than three weeks ago, California’s grower Metz Fresh recalled 8,000 cartons of spinach, which had already been delivered to stores for concerns of salmonella contamination.
That recall combined with Monday’s recall prompted Florez to ask whether vegetables in questions were grown in California, and whether the grower followed a self-regulators approach to food safety, as recommended by the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement.
The self-regulatory approach was the leafy greens industry’s answer to legislation authored by Florez last year that would regulate the industry.
Florez’s legislation was denied because the Assembly Agriculture Committee wanted to give the produce companies one more chance to regulate themselves.
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=e894d918-dec4-4311-b502-8317ed813aec
Following Monday’s salad recall in the U.S. and Canada, Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) asked the California Department of Food and Agriculture if those leafy greens came from California.
Less than three weeks ago, California’s grower Metz Fresh recalled 8,000 cartons of spinach, which had already been delivered to stores for concerns of salmonella contamination.
That recall combined with Monday’s recall prompted Florez to ask whether vegetables in questions were grown in California, and whether the grower followed a self-regulators approach to food safety, as recommended by the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement.
The self-regulatory approach was the leafy greens industry’s answer to legislation authored by Florez last year that would regulate the industry.
Florez’s legislation was denied because the Assembly Agriculture Committee wanted to give the produce companies one more chance to regulate themselves.
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=e894d918-dec4-4311-b502-8317ed813aec
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Next time we may not be so lucky
Recent spinach recall raises new questions about industry self-regulation of California's leafy green safety.
Batch Data Processor | Wednesday, Sep 12 2007 8:55 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Sep 12 2007 9:01 PM
We got a taste of industry self-regulation last month when Monterey County grower Metz Fresh recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach after a routine test turned up salmonella.
The company didn't conduct the salmonella test because some California law required it. Metz Fresh didn't announce the recall because of a government-mandated consumer-safety protocol. Things happened the way they did because of industry self-regulation -- in this case, because Metz Fresh was complying with the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, a set of voluntary food safety rules created after the 2006 fresh-spinach outbreak of E. coli.
A success story? Hardly. Rather than halting the conveyor belt after a preliminary test revealed the presence of salmonella, Metz Fresh let it roll while the company lab conducted a second test.
Only when the second test confirmed the presence of salmonella did Metz Fresh issue the recall order. The company tracked down about 90 percent of the spinach it had shipped in the interim, but a week later it was still looking for the missing 800 cases. Fortunately, no illnesses have been reported, although that doesn't necessarily mean no one was sickened.
Metz Fresh officials say the spinach would rot in their warehouses while time-consuming second tests are undertaken. False positives on those initial screenings aren't that uncommon, company officials say, meaning they might have halted production for nothing. But confirmation tests can take as little as 24 hours, independent food-safety scientists say, and certainly an industry this vulnerable to such outbreaks can work to further minimize the down time.
And therein lie some of the benefits of establishing state standards for testing and recall procedures for leafy-green vegetables.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has advocated a stronger state role, but he hasn't been able to get legislation out of the Assembly Agriculture Committee.
That would be the agriculture committee chaired by Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, Florez's political rival and an unrepentant ally of big ag. When the debate comes down to a question of protecting consumers or protecting the farming industry, she and Florez are usually split. Perhaps Parra's longtime mentor, former Congressman Cal Dooley, now a chief lobbyist with the Food Products Association, has something to do with that.
The last time Parra's Ag Committee defeated a Florez consumer-protection bill, back in June, it got ugly. Florez claimed committee members were "willing to wait for another death" from contaminated vegetables before strengthening laws to prevent such outbreaks.
Parra demanded that Florez stop criticizing her entire committee because he can't get his food-safety bills approved. "Don't blame members of this committee," she said. "Blame me."
Florez no doubt does. But what if the next time industry self-regulation fails to catch a potentially deadly bacteria we're not as lucky as we were in the Metz Fresh case?
What if people die, as happened with the E. coli outbreak of 2006? Who shall we blame for that?
Far better we should credit Parra and her Agriculture Committee for eventually seeing the wisdom of state-mandated testing and recall procedures.
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/editorials/story/235297.html
Batch Data Processor | Wednesday, Sep 12 2007 8:55 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Sep 12 2007 9:01 PM
We got a taste of industry self-regulation last month when Monterey County grower Metz Fresh recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach after a routine test turned up salmonella.
The company didn't conduct the salmonella test because some California law required it. Metz Fresh didn't announce the recall because of a government-mandated consumer-safety protocol. Things happened the way they did because of industry self-regulation -- in this case, because Metz Fresh was complying with the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, a set of voluntary food safety rules created after the 2006 fresh-spinach outbreak of E. coli.
A success story? Hardly. Rather than halting the conveyor belt after a preliminary test revealed the presence of salmonella, Metz Fresh let it roll while the company lab conducted a second test.
Only when the second test confirmed the presence of salmonella did Metz Fresh issue the recall order. The company tracked down about 90 percent of the spinach it had shipped in the interim, but a week later it was still looking for the missing 800 cases. Fortunately, no illnesses have been reported, although that doesn't necessarily mean no one was sickened.
Metz Fresh officials say the spinach would rot in their warehouses while time-consuming second tests are undertaken. False positives on those initial screenings aren't that uncommon, company officials say, meaning they might have halted production for nothing. But confirmation tests can take as little as 24 hours, independent food-safety scientists say, and certainly an industry this vulnerable to such outbreaks can work to further minimize the down time.
And therein lie some of the benefits of establishing state standards for testing and recall procedures for leafy-green vegetables.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has advocated a stronger state role, but he hasn't been able to get legislation out of the Assembly Agriculture Committee.
That would be the agriculture committee chaired by Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, Florez's political rival and an unrepentant ally of big ag. When the debate comes down to a question of protecting consumers or protecting the farming industry, she and Florez are usually split. Perhaps Parra's longtime mentor, former Congressman Cal Dooley, now a chief lobbyist with the Food Products Association, has something to do with that.
The last time Parra's Ag Committee defeated a Florez consumer-protection bill, back in June, it got ugly. Florez claimed committee members were "willing to wait for another death" from contaminated vegetables before strengthening laws to prevent such outbreaks.
Parra demanded that Florez stop criticizing her entire committee because he can't get his food-safety bills approved. "Don't blame members of this committee," she said. "Blame me."
Florez no doubt does. But what if the next time industry self-regulation fails to catch a potentially deadly bacteria we're not as lucky as we were in the Metz Fresh case?
What if people die, as happened with the E. coli outbreak of 2006? Who shall we blame for that?
Far better we should credit Parra and her Agriculture Committee for eventually seeing the wisdom of state-mandated testing and recall procedures.
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/editorials/story/235297.html
AP IMPACT: Government did not take action after E. coli outbreak
By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
(09-12) 16:08 PDT Salinas, Calif. (AP) --
Government regulators never acted on calls for stepped-up inspections of leafy greens after last year's deadly E. coli spinach outbreak, leaving the safety of America's salads to a patchwork of largely unenforceable rules and the industry itself, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The regulations governing farms in this central California region known as the nation's "Salad Bowl" remain much as they were when bacteria from a cattle ranch infected spinach that killed three people and sickened more than 200.
AP's review of data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act found that federal officials inspect companies growing and processing salad greens an average of just once every 3.9 years. Some proposals in Congress would require such inspections at least four times a year.
In California, which grows three-quarters of the nation's greens, processors created a new inspection system but with voluntary guidelines that were unable to keep bagged spinach tainted with salmonella from reaching grocery shelves last month.
Despite widespread calls for spot-testing of processing plants handling leafy greens following last year's E. coli outbreak, California public health inspectors have not been given the authority to conduct such tests, so none have been done, the AP review found.
And some farms in the fertile Salinas Valley are still vulnerable to bacteria-carrying wildlife and other dangerous conditions.
"We have strict standards for lead paint on toys, but we don't seem to take the same level of seriousness about something that we consume every day," said Darryl Howard, whose 83-year-old mother, Betty Howard, of Richland, Wash., died as a result of E. coli-related complications.
She was one of two elderly people to die in the outbreak that began in August 2006 and also included the death of a child and sicknesses reported from more than 200 people from Maine to Arizona.
By mid-September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a two-week nationwide warning not to eat fresh spinach. Authorities eventually traced the likely source of the E. coli to a cattle ranch about 40 miles east of Salinas.
But a regulatory backlash never happened.
State Sen. Dean Florez, a Central Valley Democrat who sponsored three failed bills to enact mandatory regulations for leafy greens earlier this year, said momentum faded as the E. coli case dropped from the headlines and the industry lobbied hard for self-regulation.
"That legislation was held up waiting for this voluntary approach for food safety to see if it works," said Florez, who is skeptical of that approach.
"It only took one 50-acre parcel to poison 200 people and bring the industry to its knees," he said. "We don't get why the industry would be playing this game of roulette with our food."
Among the AP's other findings:
_ Since September 2006, federal Food and Drug Administration staff inspected only 29 of the hundreds of California farms that grow fresh "stem and leaf vegetables," a broad category the agency uses to keep track of everything from cauliflower to artichokes. Agency officials said they did not know how many of those grew leafy greens.
_ Since raw vegetables, especially leafy greens, are minimally processed, they have surpassed meat as the primary culprit for food-borne illness. Produce caused nearly twice as many multistate outbreaks than meat from 1990-2004, but the funding has not caught up to this trend. The U.S. Department of Agriculture branch that prevents animal diseases gets almost twice the funding as the FDA receives to safeguard produce.
_ California lettuce and spinach have been the source of 13 E. coli outbreaks since 1996. But if salad growers or handlers violate those new guidelines, they are not subject to any fines, are not punishable under state law and may be allowed to keep selling their products.
Last year's outbreak prompted a temporary downturn in sales of salad greens, but more than 5 million bags of salad are now sold each day nationwide, a number the industry says will grow as health-conscious consumers opt for more greens and vegetables.
Much of those sprout near Salinas, where the fog lifted on a recent morning over fields of romaine and iceberg already wilting in the August sun.
Men in sweat shirts and baseball caps cut heads of lettuce from the ground and loaded them into cardboard boxes to be taken to a nearby plant owned by Castroville-based packager Ocean Mist Farms. From there, they would be shipped out to supermarkets and buyers as far away as Japan.
In an attempt to reassure wary customers, Ocean Mist's vice president recently helped organize a group to police food safety, run entirely by the $1.7 billion leafy greens industry. Some 118 salad processors have signed on to the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, which uses its own voluntary food safety guidelines.
Public health inspectors can impose mandatory food-safety rules on the farm only after an outbreak, said Patrick Kennelly, chief of the food safety section at California's Department of Public Health.
Some scientists question the approach.
"Mandatory measures give a level playing field and make sure everybody responds," said Martin Cole, a food safety expert at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
But in the absence of federal regulations, 10 auditors from the California Department of Food and Agriculture are monitoring the fields, including Roxann Bramlage, who tramped down the rows of lettuce with a checklist.
"When somebody cuts their finger and it bleeds, what will you do?" Bramlage asked foreman Fernando Vasquez, standing next to a harvester machine rolling gently over the beds.
"When he cuts his finger, even if it's a small cut, I take him to the edge of the field," Vasquez said in Spanish. "Then I put a border around the area where he was working and I don't let anyone cut in it."
That was the right answer.
Ocean Mist passed Bramlage's field audit because the company could prove its growers protected their crops against pathogens, which gave them the right to use a state seal telling consumers the product was grown safely. Growers say that seal sends a powerful message to consumers.
"Once they join, there's nothing voluntary about the program," said Scott Horsfall, who oversees the marketing agreement. "If a handler is decertified, buyers will definitely react."
The industry-led approach isn't foolproof, however.
On Aug. 29, Metz Fresh, a grower and shipper in King City, 30 miles south of Salinas, recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach tainted with salmonella. Auditors had visited the company a few weeks before, but inspected a field where the produce was clean. So they noted nothing unusual in their report.
No one knows how the bacteria got into the leaves. But the news rekindled fears among consumers and legislators who say they are skeptical of the government's willingness to let the industry police itself.
"Some will say the system is working and that we are catching the problem and recalling products, but the average consumer wouldn't know that," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "Last year, it was E. coli; this year, salmonella."
Harkin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are both working on bills to develop a set of mandatory national guidelines to supercede the current patchwork of food safety regulations.
Similar proposals were developed a year ago, but none have gone forward.
In March, the Bush Administration issued a draft of its guidance to minimize microbial hazards of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. Unlike the strict hazard-control program governing meat and poultry, the guidance included no new laws.
Many growers and producers are either unaware of the guidelines or simply aren't complying, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.
"Inspection alone isn't going to fix the problem, unless the farmers utilize food-safety plans that are effective for controlling pathogens," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the center's food safety division. "They're not getting at the source of the contamination: on the farm."
Associated Press writer Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco contributed to this report.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/12/financial/f151104D77.DTL
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
(09-12) 16:08 PDT Salinas, Calif. (AP) --
Government regulators never acted on calls for stepped-up inspections of leafy greens after last year's deadly E. coli spinach outbreak, leaving the safety of America's salads to a patchwork of largely unenforceable rules and the industry itself, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The regulations governing farms in this central California region known as the nation's "Salad Bowl" remain much as they were when bacteria from a cattle ranch infected spinach that killed three people and sickened more than 200.
AP's review of data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act found that federal officials inspect companies growing and processing salad greens an average of just once every 3.9 years. Some proposals in Congress would require such inspections at least four times a year.
In California, which grows three-quarters of the nation's greens, processors created a new inspection system but with voluntary guidelines that were unable to keep bagged spinach tainted with salmonella from reaching grocery shelves last month.
Despite widespread calls for spot-testing of processing plants handling leafy greens following last year's E. coli outbreak, California public health inspectors have not been given the authority to conduct such tests, so none have been done, the AP review found.
And some farms in the fertile Salinas Valley are still vulnerable to bacteria-carrying wildlife and other dangerous conditions.
"We have strict standards for lead paint on toys, but we don't seem to take the same level of seriousness about something that we consume every day," said Darryl Howard, whose 83-year-old mother, Betty Howard, of Richland, Wash., died as a result of E. coli-related complications.
She was one of two elderly people to die in the outbreak that began in August 2006 and also included the death of a child and sicknesses reported from more than 200 people from Maine to Arizona.
By mid-September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a two-week nationwide warning not to eat fresh spinach. Authorities eventually traced the likely source of the E. coli to a cattle ranch about 40 miles east of Salinas.
But a regulatory backlash never happened.
State Sen. Dean Florez, a Central Valley Democrat who sponsored three failed bills to enact mandatory regulations for leafy greens earlier this year, said momentum faded as the E. coli case dropped from the headlines and the industry lobbied hard for self-regulation.
"That legislation was held up waiting for this voluntary approach for food safety to see if it works," said Florez, who is skeptical of that approach.
"It only took one 50-acre parcel to poison 200 people and bring the industry to its knees," he said. "We don't get why the industry would be playing this game of roulette with our food."
Among the AP's other findings:
_ Since September 2006, federal Food and Drug Administration staff inspected only 29 of the hundreds of California farms that grow fresh "stem and leaf vegetables," a broad category the agency uses to keep track of everything from cauliflower to artichokes. Agency officials said they did not know how many of those grew leafy greens.
_ Since raw vegetables, especially leafy greens, are minimally processed, they have surpassed meat as the primary culprit for food-borne illness. Produce caused nearly twice as many multistate outbreaks than meat from 1990-2004, but the funding has not caught up to this trend. The U.S. Department of Agriculture branch that prevents animal diseases gets almost twice the funding as the FDA receives to safeguard produce.
_ California lettuce and spinach have been the source of 13 E. coli outbreaks since 1996. But if salad growers or handlers violate those new guidelines, they are not subject to any fines, are not punishable under state law and may be allowed to keep selling their products.
Last year's outbreak prompted a temporary downturn in sales of salad greens, but more than 5 million bags of salad are now sold each day nationwide, a number the industry says will grow as health-conscious consumers opt for more greens and vegetables.
Much of those sprout near Salinas, where the fog lifted on a recent morning over fields of romaine and iceberg already wilting in the August sun.
Men in sweat shirts and baseball caps cut heads of lettuce from the ground and loaded them into cardboard boxes to be taken to a nearby plant owned by Castroville-based packager Ocean Mist Farms. From there, they would be shipped out to supermarkets and buyers as far away as Japan.
In an attempt to reassure wary customers, Ocean Mist's vice president recently helped organize a group to police food safety, run entirely by the $1.7 billion leafy greens industry. Some 118 salad processors have signed on to the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, which uses its own voluntary food safety guidelines.
Public health inspectors can impose mandatory food-safety rules on the farm only after an outbreak, said Patrick Kennelly, chief of the food safety section at California's Department of Public Health.
Some scientists question the approach.
"Mandatory measures give a level playing field and make sure everybody responds," said Martin Cole, a food safety expert at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
But in the absence of federal regulations, 10 auditors from the California Department of Food and Agriculture are monitoring the fields, including Roxann Bramlage, who tramped down the rows of lettuce with a checklist.
"When somebody cuts their finger and it bleeds, what will you do?" Bramlage asked foreman Fernando Vasquez, standing next to a harvester machine rolling gently over the beds.
"When he cuts his finger, even if it's a small cut, I take him to the edge of the field," Vasquez said in Spanish. "Then I put a border around the area where he was working and I don't let anyone cut in it."
That was the right answer.
Ocean Mist passed Bramlage's field audit because the company could prove its growers protected their crops against pathogens, which gave them the right to use a state seal telling consumers the product was grown safely. Growers say that seal sends a powerful message to consumers.
"Once they join, there's nothing voluntary about the program," said Scott Horsfall, who oversees the marketing agreement. "If a handler is decertified, buyers will definitely react."
The industry-led approach isn't foolproof, however.
On Aug. 29, Metz Fresh, a grower and shipper in King City, 30 miles south of Salinas, recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach tainted with salmonella. Auditors had visited the company a few weeks before, but inspected a field where the produce was clean. So they noted nothing unusual in their report.
No one knows how the bacteria got into the leaves. But the news rekindled fears among consumers and legislators who say they are skeptical of the government's willingness to let the industry police itself.
"Some will say the system is working and that we are catching the problem and recalling products, but the average consumer wouldn't know that," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "Last year, it was E. coli; this year, salmonella."
Harkin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are both working on bills to develop a set of mandatory national guidelines to supercede the current patchwork of food safety regulations.
Similar proposals were developed a year ago, but none have gone forward.
In March, the Bush Administration issued a draft of its guidance to minimize microbial hazards of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. Unlike the strict hazard-control program governing meat and poultry, the guidance included no new laws.
Many growers and producers are either unaware of the guidelines or simply aren't complying, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.
"Inspection alone isn't going to fix the problem, unless the farmers utilize food-safety plans that are effective for controlling pathogens," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the center's food safety division. "They're not getting at the source of the contamination: on the farm."
Associated Press writer Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco contributed to this report.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/12/financial/f151104D77.DTL
Recall renews debate on safety of leafy greens
Company that pulled suspect spinach used its own tests, going beyond new guidelines.
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, September 2, 2007
Five months after the produce industry rolled out new guidelines in an effort to bring safer spinach and lettuce to America's tables, another spinach recall is shining a spotlight on what that approach can -- and can't -- ensure.
The Salinas Valley company that yanked back 68,000 pounds of spinach this week, fearing salmonella contamination, says it found the problem by going far beyond the updated safety guidelines.
From that, people can reach almost any conclusion that suits their politics: We need tougher laws. Or market forces will keep our produce safe. Or the new guidelines are helping. Or they aren't.
"It's never going to be perfect. We all understand that," said Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in food poisoning litigation. Marler argues that ultimately, tough regulation will protect consumers better than even the most vigilant companies.
Spinach and lettuce growers are hoping, instead, to prove their trustworthiness with voluntary efforts, including something called the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, which calls for safer farming practices.
Scott Horsfall, who oversees that agreement, estimates that 99 percent of handlers -- the companies that pack fresh greens from California and send them to markets or restaurants -- have signed onto the pact since it went into effect April 1. The terms require handlers to do business only with growers who pledge to test irrigation water, keep animals out of fields and take other steps to prevent contamination.
The guidelines themselves came after years of food-borne disease outbreaks traced to the Salinas Valley, most recently last fall when spinach contaminated with E. coli killed three people and sickened 200.
Afterward, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, was among those who proposed tough new consumer regulations. His bills, strongly opposed by agriculture, are stalled in an Assembly committee.
In the wake of the 2006 E. coli outbreak, though, two other changes began moving through the salad and spinach industry. The coalition of growers and handlers set up their leafy greens pact. And a number of companies stepped up their own internal testing for E. coli and salmonella.
Horsfall estimates that more than half the handlers covered by the leafy greens agreement are also doing additional product testing that's not required by the pact.
Among them are Metz Fresh, a growing and shipping company based in King City in Monterey County. It started pulling bags of spinach off the assembly line and testing samples back in October, said company spokesman Greg Larsen.
That "final product testing" was the procedure that tipped Metz Fresh to potential salmonella on Aug. 24, he said. The company began contacting shippers and retailers that day, telling them to hold off on moving any more of the spinach, which was headed to club stores and grocers in 48 states and Canada.
Larsen said Metz Fresh didn't issue a public recall right away because it wanted to do a second, more thorough round of testing.
Those tests were done Tuesday, and Metz Fresh worked into the evening with the Food and Drug Administration to craft a recall notice, Larsen said. The notice itself wasn't made public until very late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, he said.
By then, the company had tracked down about 90 percent of the 8,000 cases of spinach it had shipped, and it had not received any reports of people becoming ill.
On Friday, Larsen said, the company still wasn't certain what happened to the other 10 percent. It doesn't know if anyone ate it, how much was sold or in what states, he said.
"We contained the vast majority of it," Larsen said.
One of the biggest questions is why Metz Fresh didn't hang onto its spinach until the test results were in.
Such a test-and-hold approach is "the smartest move," said Horsfall of the leafy greens group.
Said attorney Marler: "Testing without holding tells you whether a product is contaminated or not, but if it is, it's already out your door and you have a problem. I don't think it's wise to test it and ship it."
Larsen said Metz Fresh began shipping because the quick tests it uses for salmonella often produce false positives, and the more precise confirmation tests can take three to 12 days.
Yet Michael Hansen, a senior scientist for Consumers Union, said a company pushing hard can do that second round of confirmation testing in 24 to 48 hours.
At the same time, Marler and others praised Metz Fresh for testing at all. While it's not a solution to all problems, and tainted products can still slip through, testing helps the industry identify weak points and improve safety, Marler said.
For his part, A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, used the latest episode to praise the leafy greens agreement.
He wrote Sen. Florez on Friday that the agreement's food safety and product tracking systems were responsible for "preventing an outbreak that could have resulted from contaminated spinach."
Asked how that could be, when the program didn't call for the kind of testing used by Metz Fresh, Kawamura's spokesman responded in an e-mail that he was referring only to how the tainted product could be tracked more easily.
By late Friday, the company was still working to find out where the rest of its spinach had gone. It urged consumers to either throw away affected bags of spinach or return them to stores for refunds.
The recalled spinach, in 10- and 16-ounce bags well as cartoons containing around 4 pounds, has tracking codes 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go to: Sacbee / Back to story
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, September 2, 2007
Five months after the produce industry rolled out new guidelines in an effort to bring safer spinach and lettuce to America's tables, another spinach recall is shining a spotlight on what that approach can -- and can't -- ensure.
The Salinas Valley company that yanked back 68,000 pounds of spinach this week, fearing salmonella contamination, says it found the problem by going far beyond the updated safety guidelines.
From that, people can reach almost any conclusion that suits their politics: We need tougher laws. Or market forces will keep our produce safe. Or the new guidelines are helping. Or they aren't.
"It's never going to be perfect. We all understand that," said Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in food poisoning litigation. Marler argues that ultimately, tough regulation will protect consumers better than even the most vigilant companies.
Spinach and lettuce growers are hoping, instead, to prove their trustworthiness with voluntary efforts, including something called the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, which calls for safer farming practices.
Scott Horsfall, who oversees that agreement, estimates that 99 percent of handlers -- the companies that pack fresh greens from California and send them to markets or restaurants -- have signed onto the pact since it went into effect April 1. The terms require handlers to do business only with growers who pledge to test irrigation water, keep animals out of fields and take other steps to prevent contamination.
The guidelines themselves came after years of food-borne disease outbreaks traced to the Salinas Valley, most recently last fall when spinach contaminated with E. coli killed three people and sickened 200.
Afterward, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, was among those who proposed tough new consumer regulations. His bills, strongly opposed by agriculture, are stalled in an Assembly committee.
In the wake of the 2006 E. coli outbreak, though, two other changes began moving through the salad and spinach industry. The coalition of growers and handlers set up their leafy greens pact. And a number of companies stepped up their own internal testing for E. coli and salmonella.
Horsfall estimates that more than half the handlers covered by the leafy greens agreement are also doing additional product testing that's not required by the pact.
Among them are Metz Fresh, a growing and shipping company based in King City in Monterey County. It started pulling bags of spinach off the assembly line and testing samples back in October, said company spokesman Greg Larsen.
That "final product testing" was the procedure that tipped Metz Fresh to potential salmonella on Aug. 24, he said. The company began contacting shippers and retailers that day, telling them to hold off on moving any more of the spinach, which was headed to club stores and grocers in 48 states and Canada.
Larsen said Metz Fresh didn't issue a public recall right away because it wanted to do a second, more thorough round of testing.
Those tests were done Tuesday, and Metz Fresh worked into the evening with the Food and Drug Administration to craft a recall notice, Larsen said. The notice itself wasn't made public until very late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, he said.
By then, the company had tracked down about 90 percent of the 8,000 cases of spinach it had shipped, and it had not received any reports of people becoming ill.
On Friday, Larsen said, the company still wasn't certain what happened to the other 10 percent. It doesn't know if anyone ate it, how much was sold or in what states, he said.
"We contained the vast majority of it," Larsen said.
One of the biggest questions is why Metz Fresh didn't hang onto its spinach until the test results were in.
Such a test-and-hold approach is "the smartest move," said Horsfall of the leafy greens group.
Said attorney Marler: "Testing without holding tells you whether a product is contaminated or not, but if it is, it's already out your door and you have a problem. I don't think it's wise to test it and ship it."
Larsen said Metz Fresh began shipping because the quick tests it uses for salmonella often produce false positives, and the more precise confirmation tests can take three to 12 days.
Yet Michael Hansen, a senior scientist for Consumers Union, said a company pushing hard can do that second round of confirmation testing in 24 to 48 hours.
At the same time, Marler and others praised Metz Fresh for testing at all. While it's not a solution to all problems, and tainted products can still slip through, testing helps the industry identify weak points and improve safety, Marler said.
For his part, A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, used the latest episode to praise the leafy greens agreement.
He wrote Sen. Florez on Friday that the agreement's food safety and product tracking systems were responsible for "preventing an outbreak that could have resulted from contaminated spinach."
Asked how that could be, when the program didn't call for the kind of testing used by Metz Fresh, Kawamura's spokesman responded in an e-mail that he was referring only to how the tainted product could be tracked more easily.
By late Friday, the company was still working to find out where the rest of its spinach had gone. It urged consumers to either throw away affected bags of spinach or return them to stores for refunds.
The recalled spinach, in 10- and 16-ounce bags well as cartoons containing around 4 pounds, has tracking codes 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go to: Sacbee / Back to story
California Senator Dean Florez Questions Results of Leafy Green Industry Self-Regulation in Light of Salmonella Outbreak
By Frank D. Russo
Senator Dean Florez answered questions by another persistent reporter yesterday about what the recent outbreak of salmonella in California lettuce distributed in over 48 states and Canada means about food safety in California.
Florez wrote A.G. Kawamura, the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), to express his concerns, and a copy of his letter is reproduced below. Florez is the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness and introduced legislation in the wake of deadly 2006 E. coli outbreaks linked to California leafy greens which would have mandated an improved inspection process and efficient traceback system. That legislation was shelved by the Assembly Agriculture Committee, which opted to wait and see how industry faired in its attempts to self-regulate, despite the industry’s previous lack of response to repeated outbreaks and calls for action from the federal Food and Drug Administration.
In his letter, Florez questions how the contaminated produce made it to store shelves before the danger was caught if leafy greens are being inspected as promised under the voluntary Leafy Green Marketing Agreement to which the distributor in question, Metz Fresh, is a signatory.
Here is what the reporter, clearly frustrated by the lack of a response to her questions to the CDFA, heard from Florez:
Q. What do you make of this latest recall? It's clearly a different problem, different part of Monterey County, so we're not looking necessarily at the same thing.
Well, I think that what this says is that the system that growers had voluntarily put together is not working. And many of them have said that it is a workable system now--that we caught the salmonella--even though it was distributed in 48 states and Canada. But remember, it was caught at the store level.
And I think the issue was as we debated spinach last year, that they were in essence going to make the product safer, they were going to put a seal on it, and everybody was going to know by the time it hit that shelf that it was absolutely grade A, ready to go for consumers. I think that what we found here--there was no seal, it hit a shelf, it was pulled off the shelf and now we're pulling cartons off.
This is not the system that I think consumers want. Consumers want at the very beginning of this process to have a bag sealed, with a seal of approval that says it is ready to be eaten. Period.
What this is, is simply a catch up system that says--Once we find out something is wrong, we'll catch up, pull it back, and hope that there's no illnesses. In this case, we still don't know if there will be illnesses. Salmonella obviously affects a lot of people.
Q. But isn't this better than nothing? It was the company's own voluntary testing that that they didn't have to do. They didn't have to recall it, so…
Well, I think this is a better situation than the situation we had last year. It is not the right situation, however. We need to catch this before--We need to have the seal of approval prior to, and we …shouldn't have to be pulling product off the shelf. I think at the end of the day what we're saying is that there's a link that's missing here--and that is the seal of approval that was touted. And we just want to make sure that the industry recognizes that--I know they're having an emergency meeting today to talk about this.
Our job in essence is to say there's a better way to do this, there's a mandatory way to do this, and there ought to be something that says the seal of approval means that a bag that's closed is ready to eat. And that isn't the case today with spinach and it's been shown by the outbreak of the salmonella that we just found.
Q. But the Health Department has said that its food emergency response team"--what is that. What does this mean, and are we to trust people because they….
Well, the problem with the Department of Health's approach at this point in time again is that it is also a 'catch up" system. There's no one proactively going out to the fields, spot checking. We are relying on the industries to do their own spot checks. And in this case, it's in the industry's interest to recall those bags because once people began to get sick, it doesn't matter how well this program runs--no one will go back to eating spinach for a very long time.
They're doing it for economic reasons--we get that--but think for health reasons we'd like to have that bag sealed with that seal of approval as they've promised us, and not have to find it on a shelf.
Q. But this is the Department of Health Services that once again--they can't produce somebody to tell me what a food emergency response team is--are we going to trust them to do anything?
I think the reasons that the Department of Health Services is so vague on how to enforce this is because, this is number one, not mandatory--they're relying on a voluntary group of folks to tell them how this ought to be implemented. And this is the whole rationale for having our bills pass this year--is that the Department of Health Services should have very strict guidelines. They should be running the show and not reacting to--because they don't have answers because they're not part and parcel creating the regulations necessary to make this happen.
Q. But they seem fairly incompetent--pretty much any level. Any time we call them they never can produce anyone to tell us anything.
It's because we don't have the proper structure our bills put forward, to have if you will, leafy greens part of our health inspection programs. Right now, they're reacting to and they're probably calling the folks that were responsible for this--in a voluntary way--the growers and asking them--"Can we tell people that it's OK?" That really isn't the way government should be operating.
Q. But just because you do a bill, is this going to all of a sudden make these people competent overnight?
No, but what I think a bill does is it puts in statute real regulations we can hold the Department of Health Services accountable to. Right now we could do is ask the Department: "How did you monitor? How did it go? How did it look?" There's really no really nothing to hold them accountable to, and quite frankly, the voluntary group that produced this salmonella issue just a day ago isn't responsible to anyone either. So, we're back in the same situation where no one is held accountable, everyone promises things will get better, we have a catch up system in the end, and we're just taking chances with consumers.
Not one consumer can say that a bag on a shelf is sealed, they can open it, put it on their plate and eat it. That's not the case today. That's what consumers want and we ought to push for that higher standard.
Here is a copy of Floret's letter to Kawamura.
August 30, 2007
A.G. Kawamura
Secretary
California Dept. of Food & Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Secretary Kawamura:
I am writing to express my serious concern regarding the recent distribution of spinach contaminated with salmonella from a California farm. I understand that the contaminated spinach originated from Metz Fresh, which is a signatory to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement program, which is under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Nearly one year has passed since the devastating E. coli outbreak from California grown spinach, and it is clear that California’s food safety measures are lacking, as is evidenced by the fact that we continue to distribute contaminated produce across the United States and Canada. Most troubling is the fact that, according to reports in the Bakersfield Californian, contaminated spinach was placed on shelves and was available for sale to consumers. This raises serious questions regarding the effectiveness of the current food safety program and signals the need for stronger regulation on the part of government.
In light of this incident it is necessary and appropriate for the Committee to better understand the current status of the food safety measures in place under the Leafy Green Marketing agreement. Accordingly, please provide the Committee with the following information:
1) An explanation as to why the contaminated spinach was not identified prior to being distributed to retailers and/or commercial food establishments and, more importantly, why it was not identified prior to being made available for purchase by consumers.
2) Whether the packaging containing the contaminated spinach bears the official seal of the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement. In the event that the packaging does not bear the seal, please provide an explanation as to why, given that the seal is the only manner for consumers to identify whether a grower is a signatory to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement and was touted as a cornerstone of the agreement.
3) Whether Metz Fresh has been inspected pursuant to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement. If so, please provide the date of the inspection and the results of the investigation, detailing any violations or shortcomings identified. Please provide any documents generated during the inspection process.
4) What specific actions will be taken by the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement in light of this incident.
5) The current status of the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement inspection and compliance program, including what percentage of processors and growers have been inspected to date, and the results of these inspections.
Given the seriousness of this breakdown in California’s food safety system please provide a response no later than 1 p.m. on Friday, August 31, 2007.
Sincerely,
DEAN FLOREZ
Chair, Senate Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness
Senator Dean Florez answered questions by another persistent reporter yesterday about what the recent outbreak of salmonella in California lettuce distributed in over 48 states and Canada means about food safety in California.
Florez wrote A.G. Kawamura, the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), to express his concerns, and a copy of his letter is reproduced below. Florez is the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness and introduced legislation in the wake of deadly 2006 E. coli outbreaks linked to California leafy greens which would have mandated an improved inspection process and efficient traceback system. That legislation was shelved by the Assembly Agriculture Committee, which opted to wait and see how industry faired in its attempts to self-regulate, despite the industry’s previous lack of response to repeated outbreaks and calls for action from the federal Food and Drug Administration.
In his letter, Florez questions how the contaminated produce made it to store shelves before the danger was caught if leafy greens are being inspected as promised under the voluntary Leafy Green Marketing Agreement to which the distributor in question, Metz Fresh, is a signatory.
Here is what the reporter, clearly frustrated by the lack of a response to her questions to the CDFA, heard from Florez:
Q. What do you make of this latest recall? It's clearly a different problem, different part of Monterey County, so we're not looking necessarily at the same thing.
Well, I think that what this says is that the system that growers had voluntarily put together is not working. And many of them have said that it is a workable system now--that we caught the salmonella--even though it was distributed in 48 states and Canada. But remember, it was caught at the store level.
And I think the issue was as we debated spinach last year, that they were in essence going to make the product safer, they were going to put a seal on it, and everybody was going to know by the time it hit that shelf that it was absolutely grade A, ready to go for consumers. I think that what we found here--there was no seal, it hit a shelf, it was pulled off the shelf and now we're pulling cartons off.
This is not the system that I think consumers want. Consumers want at the very beginning of this process to have a bag sealed, with a seal of approval that says it is ready to be eaten. Period.
What this is, is simply a catch up system that says--Once we find out something is wrong, we'll catch up, pull it back, and hope that there's no illnesses. In this case, we still don't know if there will be illnesses. Salmonella obviously affects a lot of people.
Q. But isn't this better than nothing? It was the company's own voluntary testing that that they didn't have to do. They didn't have to recall it, so…
Well, I think this is a better situation than the situation we had last year. It is not the right situation, however. We need to catch this before--We need to have the seal of approval prior to, and we …shouldn't have to be pulling product off the shelf. I think at the end of the day what we're saying is that there's a link that's missing here--and that is the seal of approval that was touted. And we just want to make sure that the industry recognizes that--I know they're having an emergency meeting today to talk about this.
Our job in essence is to say there's a better way to do this, there's a mandatory way to do this, and there ought to be something that says the seal of approval means that a bag that's closed is ready to eat. And that isn't the case today with spinach and it's been shown by the outbreak of the salmonella that we just found.
Q. But the Health Department has said that its food emergency response team"--what is that. What does this mean, and are we to trust people because they….
Well, the problem with the Department of Health's approach at this point in time again is that it is also a 'catch up" system. There's no one proactively going out to the fields, spot checking. We are relying on the industries to do their own spot checks. And in this case, it's in the industry's interest to recall those bags because once people began to get sick, it doesn't matter how well this program runs--no one will go back to eating spinach for a very long time.
They're doing it for economic reasons--we get that--but think for health reasons we'd like to have that bag sealed with that seal of approval as they've promised us, and not have to find it on a shelf.
Q. But this is the Department of Health Services that once again--they can't produce somebody to tell me what a food emergency response team is--are we going to trust them to do anything?
I think the reasons that the Department of Health Services is so vague on how to enforce this is because, this is number one, not mandatory--they're relying on a voluntary group of folks to tell them how this ought to be implemented. And this is the whole rationale for having our bills pass this year--is that the Department of Health Services should have very strict guidelines. They should be running the show and not reacting to--because they don't have answers because they're not part and parcel creating the regulations necessary to make this happen.
Q. But they seem fairly incompetent--pretty much any level. Any time we call them they never can produce anyone to tell us anything.
It's because we don't have the proper structure our bills put forward, to have if you will, leafy greens part of our health inspection programs. Right now, they're reacting to and they're probably calling the folks that were responsible for this--in a voluntary way--the growers and asking them--"Can we tell people that it's OK?" That really isn't the way government should be operating.
Q. But just because you do a bill, is this going to all of a sudden make these people competent overnight?
No, but what I think a bill does is it puts in statute real regulations we can hold the Department of Health Services accountable to. Right now we could do is ask the Department: "How did you monitor? How did it go? How did it look?" There's really no really nothing to hold them accountable to, and quite frankly, the voluntary group that produced this salmonella issue just a day ago isn't responsible to anyone either. So, we're back in the same situation where no one is held accountable, everyone promises things will get better, we have a catch up system in the end, and we're just taking chances with consumers.
Not one consumer can say that a bag on a shelf is sealed, they can open it, put it on their plate and eat it. That's not the case today. That's what consumers want and we ought to push for that higher standard.
Here is a copy of Floret's letter to Kawamura.
August 30, 2007
A.G. Kawamura
Secretary
California Dept. of Food & Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Secretary Kawamura:
I am writing to express my serious concern regarding the recent distribution of spinach contaminated with salmonella from a California farm. I understand that the contaminated spinach originated from Metz Fresh, which is a signatory to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement program, which is under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Nearly one year has passed since the devastating E. coli outbreak from California grown spinach, and it is clear that California’s food safety measures are lacking, as is evidenced by the fact that we continue to distribute contaminated produce across the United States and Canada. Most troubling is the fact that, according to reports in the Bakersfield Californian, contaminated spinach was placed on shelves and was available for sale to consumers. This raises serious questions regarding the effectiveness of the current food safety program and signals the need for stronger regulation on the part of government.
In light of this incident it is necessary and appropriate for the Committee to better understand the current status of the food safety measures in place under the Leafy Green Marketing agreement. Accordingly, please provide the Committee with the following information:
1) An explanation as to why the contaminated spinach was not identified prior to being distributed to retailers and/or commercial food establishments and, more importantly, why it was not identified prior to being made available for purchase by consumers.
2) Whether the packaging containing the contaminated spinach bears the official seal of the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement. In the event that the packaging does not bear the seal, please provide an explanation as to why, given that the seal is the only manner for consumers to identify whether a grower is a signatory to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement and was touted as a cornerstone of the agreement.
3) Whether Metz Fresh has been inspected pursuant to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement. If so, please provide the date of the inspection and the results of the investigation, detailing any violations or shortcomings identified. Please provide any documents generated during the inspection process.
4) What specific actions will be taken by the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement in light of this incident.
5) The current status of the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement inspection and compliance program, including what percentage of processors and growers have been inspected to date, and the results of these inspections.
Given the seriousness of this breakdown in California’s food safety system please provide a response no later than 1 p.m. on Friday, August 31, 2007.
Sincerely,
DEAN FLOREZ
Chair, Senate Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness
Sen. Florez heated about recent spinach recall
Last Update: 8/30 8:19 pm
Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) voiced his frustration Thursday over the latest recall of California-grown spinach.
Metz Fresh in Monterrey County voluntarily recalled 68,000 pounds of bagged spinach after it tested positive for salmonella.
Earlier this year, Florez introduced bills that would have required the Department of Public Health to conduct testing in the fields and facilities where spinach and other leafy greens are packaged.
Those bills were killed, however, by the committee.
"We’re back in the same situation where we're taking chances with consumers,” Florez said. “Not one consumer can say a bag on the shelf is sealed. They can open it, eat it, that's not the case. It’s what consumers want. We're going to push for that higher standard."
A team of state and federal officials are investigating the Metz Fresh facility, combing through their records and products.
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=71fff469-3e06-4ab1-a5ed-150a037a726b
Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) voiced his frustration Thursday over the latest recall of California-grown spinach.
Metz Fresh in Monterrey County voluntarily recalled 68,000 pounds of bagged spinach after it tested positive for salmonella.
Earlier this year, Florez introduced bills that would have required the Department of Public Health to conduct testing in the fields and facilities where spinach and other leafy greens are packaged.
Those bills were killed, however, by the committee.
"We’re back in the same situation where we're taking chances with consumers,” Florez said. “Not one consumer can say a bag on the shelf is sealed. They can open it, eat it, that's not the case. It’s what consumers want. We're going to push for that higher standard."
A team of state and federal officials are investigating the Metz Fresh facility, combing through their records and products.
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=71fff469-3e06-4ab1-a5ed-150a037a726b
Push for food bills renewed
Spinach recall highlights both sides of safety issues
By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 08/31/2007 01:32:48 AM PDT
Depending on whom you ask, the recall this week of 8,118 cases of Metz Fresh bagged spinach is either an indication that the safeguards in the nation's food chain are solidly in place or dismally lacking.
No illnesses have been reported in the recall, which centers around 68,000 pounds of spinach grown and shipped by King City-based Metz Fresh LLC.
But several lawmakers point to the recall as evidence that voluntary compliance measures on the part of the industry are inadequate.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, issued statements Thursday calling for legislative action to regulate growers.
Harkin, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said he would introduce legislation to establish more federal oversight of food safety practices to reduce food-borne illnesses.
"With the memory of last summer's massive E. coli outbreak in spinach still fresh in our minds, Americans are once again being hit by a large-scale recall of bagged spinach," he said. "This is a food safety concern for consumers who wonder if it is OK to serve this produce to their families and an agricultural concern for growers who face another blow to sales of their product."
Kate Cyrul, a spokesman for the senator, said he is drafting legislation similar to a bill he introduced in 1996 calling for a national framework for produce oversight, shifting the responsibility from growers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That legislation could be introduced as early as next month, she said.
Sen. Florez also weighed in, drafting a letter to A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness, Florez introduced legislation following last year's spinach recall, when an E. coli outbreak killed three people and sickened hundreds.
His legislation would have mandated what his office described as an improved inspection process and efficient traceback system, but the bill was shelved by the Assembly Agriculture Committee, which opted to wait and see how the industry fared in its attempts to self-regulate.
Florez cited what he called "the industry's previous lack of response to repeated outbreaks and calls for action from the federal Food and Drug Administration."
In his letter, he questioned the effectiveness of a voluntary system that allowed leafy greens contaminated with salmonella to make it to store shelves, despite the fact that Metz Fresh was a signatory to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement program, under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
"This raises serious questions regarding the effectiveness of the current food safety program and signals the need for stronger regulation on the part of government," he wrote.
He called upon Kawamura and Metz Fresh to better explain how contaminated spinach was not identified prior to distribution, whether the company had been inspected pursuant to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement and what penalties its board would take in light of the incident.
"I guess the biggest question anybody should have is this: Are we any better than we were last year?" said Florez by phone from Sacramento. "This sounds very reminiscent of last year, so really nothing has changed other than what we call a catch-up policy."
He questions how a member of the marketing agreement could allow contaminated product, in any amount, to get into consumers' hands and said he wants the marketing agreement's stamp to provide an iron-clad guarantee that the product is safe.
"The choice really is about a mandatory approach that says when we put the seal of approval on it, it means that when you open the bag, it means it is ready to eat and not contaminated," he said.
"The question is, what's the penalty, and where is the Department of Health Services in this process?" he said. "Let's face it: These guys didn't want regulators in their fields."
The only guarantee, according to Florez, is to increase public accountability by changing voluntary practices into statute. Florez said he'd call a hearing to address the food safety issue within the next 10 days.
But Scott Horsfal, CEO of the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, said the government already oversees the industry's practices.
"The inspections are done by California Department of Food and Agriculture inspectors, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, so it is government inspectors," he said. "This program was designed so that it does have government involvement."
While the industry provides funding for the program, its 10 inspectors are California Department of Food and Agriculture employees, trained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said.
Metz Fresh, as a produce handler, had already been inspected several times and its practices audited for conformity, he said.
Jim Bogart, president and general counsel for the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, also dismissed the criticism as misguided.
"To assert that indicates to me that they are uninformed, or misinformed as to how this marketing agreement works," said Bogart, "because it is the government, not the industry, that conducts the audits and implements the verification process for compliance with the standards."
State and federal officials spent much of Thursday at Watsonville Produce, Inc., the Moss Landing processing plant Metz Fresh contracts with for production. The state health agency was contacted Tuesday when Metz Fresh received confirmation of its test results, she said.
Suann Buggy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, said public health inspectors conducted an investigation of the processing plant Thursday and found no violations. Officials will continue with the verification of test results and examination of company records, she said.
Sold under the Metz Fresh label, the spinach was sold to retail outlets and food service providers in 48 states and Canada in 10-ounce and 16-ounce bags, as well as in 4-pound cartons and in 2.5-pound four-pack cartons, with tracking codes 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.
Metz Fresh did not release information on the value of the recalled spinach.
But the losses from those 8,118 recalled cases, amounting to 68,000 pounds of spinach, pales in comparison to last year's spinach recall. Spinach production values for the county dropped 41 percent — a loss of $77 million — according to the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner's 2006 Crop Report as compared to the previous year.
Metz Fresh grows and packages fresh spinach primarily for food service consumers, including wholesalers, with about 25 percent of its bagged spinach products shipped directly to retail establishments.
Routine testing by an independent lab, BSK Food and Diary, detected the presence of salmonella bacteria in one of three production lines Aug. 24 at a contracted processing facility in Watsonville. Further testing confirmed those results late Tuesday.
More than 90 percent of that spinach was held back before it reached consumers, according to company spokesman Greg Larsen, and the company's labeling and tracking systems allowed the company to keep the vast majority of the spinach out of the hands of the public.
Spinach grower Dick Peixoto said the calls for more government oversight were unnecessary. In his opinion, the measures growers are taking under the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement work just fine.
"They're trying to make an issue where there is no issue," said Peixoto, who grows organic spinach in Watsonville.
"All I can say is, I don't know why they're calling for more regulation when the system worked," he said. "Nobody got any tainted spinach, nobody got sick. They found it in the plant."
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_6767470
By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 08/31/2007 01:32:48 AM PDT
Depending on whom you ask, the recall this week of 8,118 cases of Metz Fresh bagged spinach is either an indication that the safeguards in the nation's food chain are solidly in place or dismally lacking.
No illnesses have been reported in the recall, which centers around 68,000 pounds of spinach grown and shipped by King City-based Metz Fresh LLC.
But several lawmakers point to the recall as evidence that voluntary compliance measures on the part of the industry are inadequate.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, issued statements Thursday calling for legislative action to regulate growers.
Harkin, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said he would introduce legislation to establish more federal oversight of food safety practices to reduce food-borne illnesses.
"With the memory of last summer's massive E. coli outbreak in spinach still fresh in our minds, Americans are once again being hit by a large-scale recall of bagged spinach," he said. "This is a food safety concern for consumers who wonder if it is OK to serve this produce to their families and an agricultural concern for growers who face another blow to sales of their product."
Kate Cyrul, a spokesman for the senator, said he is drafting legislation similar to a bill he introduced in 1996 calling for a national framework for produce oversight, shifting the responsibility from growers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That legislation could be introduced as early as next month, she said.
Sen. Florez also weighed in, drafting a letter to A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness, Florez introduced legislation following last year's spinach recall, when an E. coli outbreak killed three people and sickened hundreds.
His legislation would have mandated what his office described as an improved inspection process and efficient traceback system, but the bill was shelved by the Assembly Agriculture Committee, which opted to wait and see how the industry fared in its attempts to self-regulate.
Florez cited what he called "the industry's previous lack of response to repeated outbreaks and calls for action from the federal Food and Drug Administration."
In his letter, he questioned the effectiveness of a voluntary system that allowed leafy greens contaminated with salmonella to make it to store shelves, despite the fact that Metz Fresh was a signatory to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement program, under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
"This raises serious questions regarding the effectiveness of the current food safety program and signals the need for stronger regulation on the part of government," he wrote.
He called upon Kawamura and Metz Fresh to better explain how contaminated spinach was not identified prior to distribution, whether the company had been inspected pursuant to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement and what penalties its board would take in light of the incident.
"I guess the biggest question anybody should have is this: Are we any better than we were last year?" said Florez by phone from Sacramento. "This sounds very reminiscent of last year, so really nothing has changed other than what we call a catch-up policy."
He questions how a member of the marketing agreement could allow contaminated product, in any amount, to get into consumers' hands and said he wants the marketing agreement's stamp to provide an iron-clad guarantee that the product is safe.
"The choice really is about a mandatory approach that says when we put the seal of approval on it, it means that when you open the bag, it means it is ready to eat and not contaminated," he said.
"The question is, what's the penalty, and where is the Department of Health Services in this process?" he said. "Let's face it: These guys didn't want regulators in their fields."
The only guarantee, according to Florez, is to increase public accountability by changing voluntary practices into statute. Florez said he'd call a hearing to address the food safety issue within the next 10 days.
But Scott Horsfal, CEO of the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, said the government already oversees the industry's practices.
"The inspections are done by California Department of Food and Agriculture inspectors, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, so it is government inspectors," he said. "This program was designed so that it does have government involvement."
While the industry provides funding for the program, its 10 inspectors are California Department of Food and Agriculture employees, trained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said.
Metz Fresh, as a produce handler, had already been inspected several times and its practices audited for conformity, he said.
Jim Bogart, president and general counsel for the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, also dismissed the criticism as misguided.
"To assert that indicates to me that they are uninformed, or misinformed as to how this marketing agreement works," said Bogart, "because it is the government, not the industry, that conducts the audits and implements the verification process for compliance with the standards."
State and federal officials spent much of Thursday at Watsonville Produce, Inc., the Moss Landing processing plant Metz Fresh contracts with for production. The state health agency was contacted Tuesday when Metz Fresh received confirmation of its test results, she said.
Suann Buggy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, said public health inspectors conducted an investigation of the processing plant Thursday and found no violations. Officials will continue with the verification of test results and examination of company records, she said.
Sold under the Metz Fresh label, the spinach was sold to retail outlets and food service providers in 48 states and Canada in 10-ounce and 16-ounce bags, as well as in 4-pound cartons and in 2.5-pound four-pack cartons, with tracking codes 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.
Metz Fresh did not release information on the value of the recalled spinach.
But the losses from those 8,118 recalled cases, amounting to 68,000 pounds of spinach, pales in comparison to last year's spinach recall. Spinach production values for the county dropped 41 percent — a loss of $77 million — according to the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner's 2006 Crop Report as compared to the previous year.
Metz Fresh grows and packages fresh spinach primarily for food service consumers, including wholesalers, with about 25 percent of its bagged spinach products shipped directly to retail establishments.
Routine testing by an independent lab, BSK Food and Diary, detected the presence of salmonella bacteria in one of three production lines Aug. 24 at a contracted processing facility in Watsonville. Further testing confirmed those results late Tuesday.
More than 90 percent of that spinach was held back before it reached consumers, according to company spokesman Greg Larsen, and the company's labeling and tracking systems allowed the company to keep the vast majority of the spinach out of the hands of the public.
Spinach grower Dick Peixoto said the calls for more government oversight were unnecessary. In his opinion, the measures growers are taking under the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement work just fine.
"They're trying to make an issue where there is no issue," said Peixoto, who grows organic spinach in Watsonville.
"All I can say is, I don't know why they're calling for more regulation when the system worked," he said. "Nobody got any tainted spinach, nobody got sick. They found it in the plant."
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_6767470
Food safety observers react to latest recall
By DAWN WITHERS
The Salinas Californian
Tough new food safety precautions and produce-tracking systems implemented last year after a fatal E. coli outbreak may have prevented sicknesses when salmonella-tainted spinach was recalled from stores this week.
Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, said the fact that King City-based Metz Fresh was able to identify the latest problem, stop most of the spinach in the shipping process and quickly alert customers proves the industry safeguards have been successful.
"This is what we want to see," he said.
As more produce companies conduct more testing for contamination, more recalls and outbreaks will be announced, said University of California researcher Trevor Suslow, who worked closely with the industry in developing the marketing agreement's safety rules.
"I think the test of the industry is how we react to these types of situations," said Joseph Pezzini, vice president of operations for Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville.
Pezzini chairs the board that established and administers the new produce safety rules.
"No one was harmed by the product," he said, "and that's important."
But Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, questioned why it took so long for Metz Fresh to confirm its first positive test for salmonella.
"I can't imagine why the confirmatory test would have taken from Friday to Wednesday," she said. "Confirmatory tests can be run within 24, maximum 48 hours."
Metz Fresh officials did not immediately return an Associated Press call seeking further comment Thursday.
Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at the Consumers Union, faulted the produce industry for resisting mandatory government regulations and instead enacting its own leafy green marketing agreement.
"The spinach industry has set up this whole system that was going to prevent these problems," she said.
"Yet we have this kind of problem again."
Metz Fresh is "certainly to be commended for detecting the problem and issuing the recall, but why wasn't the system set up to test this before it left the plant," said Halloran, whose nonprofit organization tests food and provides information about threats to consumers.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said the Metz Fresh recall demonstrates the marketing agreement is flawed.
Florez has been an outspoken critic of the new food safety rules and has called for state regulation of salad producers. Leafy greens handlers sign the existing agreement only voluntarily.
His legislation to put state health officials in charge of a mandatory food-safety program for leafy greens has stalled in the state Assembly.
Florez said he plans to hold a hearing on the product recall in Salinas next month.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report. Contact Dawn Withers at withers@thecalifornian.com.
http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070831/NEWS01/708310315/1002
The Salinas Californian
Tough new food safety precautions and produce-tracking systems implemented last year after a fatal E. coli outbreak may have prevented sicknesses when salmonella-tainted spinach was recalled from stores this week.
Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, said the fact that King City-based Metz Fresh was able to identify the latest problem, stop most of the spinach in the shipping process and quickly alert customers proves the industry safeguards have been successful.
"This is what we want to see," he said.
As more produce companies conduct more testing for contamination, more recalls and outbreaks will be announced, said University of California researcher Trevor Suslow, who worked closely with the industry in developing the marketing agreement's safety rules.
"I think the test of the industry is how we react to these types of situations," said Joseph Pezzini, vice president of operations for Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville.
Pezzini chairs the board that established and administers the new produce safety rules.
"No one was harmed by the product," he said, "and that's important."
But Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, questioned why it took so long for Metz Fresh to confirm its first positive test for salmonella.
"I can't imagine why the confirmatory test would have taken from Friday to Wednesday," she said. "Confirmatory tests can be run within 24, maximum 48 hours."
Metz Fresh officials did not immediately return an Associated Press call seeking further comment Thursday.
Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at the Consumers Union, faulted the produce industry for resisting mandatory government regulations and instead enacting its own leafy green marketing agreement.
"The spinach industry has set up this whole system that was going to prevent these problems," she said.
"Yet we have this kind of problem again."
Metz Fresh is "certainly to be commended for detecting the problem and issuing the recall, but why wasn't the system set up to test this before it left the plant," said Halloran, whose nonprofit organization tests food and provides information about threats to consumers.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said the Metz Fresh recall demonstrates the marketing agreement is flawed.
Florez has been an outspoken critic of the new food safety rules and has called for state regulation of salad producers. Leafy greens handlers sign the existing agreement only voluntarily.
His legislation to put state health officials in charge of a mandatory food-safety program for leafy greens has stalled in the state Assembly.
Florez said he plans to hold a hearing on the product recall in Salinas next month.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report. Contact Dawn Withers at withers@thecalifornian.com.
http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070831/NEWS01/708310315/1002
Spinach recall sparks oversight calls
By GARANCE BURKE
08/30/07 16:09:36
Related Content
Metz Fresh LLC Consumer advocates and some lawmakers say that a Salinas Valley company's recall of spinach because of a salmonella scare shows that the federal government must do more to protect the nation's food supply, but industry officials call it proof that their voluntary regulations are working.
Metz Fresh, a King City-based grower and shipper, recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach Wednesday after salmonella was found during a routine test of spinach it was processing for shipment. More than 90 percent of the possibly contaminated cartons never reached stores, company spokesman Greg Larson said.
California's leafy greens industry adopted the voluntary regulations last year after a fatal E. coli outbreak, but advocates said a national, mandatory inspection and testing program overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is needed.
"Eight thousand cartons left the plant for distribution in the U.S. That's 8,000 too many," said Jean Halloran, a food safety expert with Consumers Union. "At this point, we are relying on the leafy green industry to police itself."
Some growers said Metz Fresh's ability to catch the bacteria showed that the new testing regimes are working. No illnesses have been reported from eating spinach linked to the company.
"I think the test of the industry is how we react to these types of situations," said grower Joseph Pezzini, who heads the board that administers the new produce safety rules. "No one was harmed by the product and that's important."
Larsen said the recalled spinach, which was picked Aug. 22, had tested negative in earlier field and production tests. Metz Fresh began telling stores and restaurants on Aug. 24 not to sell or serve the lettuce after a first round of tests came up positive.
"The first thing we are looking at right now is making sure this product, as much as possible, is under our control," he said. "The next step is to back up and take a hard look at how this happened."
Metz Fresh has complied with the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, a set of voluntary food safety rules drafted after last year's E. coli outbreak in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened 200. By joining the program, participants also agree to have their fields and plants checked for compliance.
In two separate plant and field visits earlier this month, California auditors found no signs of danger at Metz Fresh, said Scott Horsfall, who oversees the industry-sponsored program.
"I'm not trying to put a pretty face on it, but the overall system is working very well," Horsfall said. "Consumers can have a high degree of confidence in this product, notwithstanding this recent problem."
But some legislators said the latest recall showed the FDA had yet to improve a patchwork produce safety system critics believe is vastly understaffed and poorly monitored.
"This in no way should be seen as a success story," said state Sen. Dean Florez, who chairs a committee on food-borne illnesses. He said that Metz Fresh should have caught the salmonella before any of its spinach reached consumers, and that he has written the state's agriculture secretary demanding answers about "this breakdown in California's food safety system."
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is crafting legislation that would set up national food safety practices for growing and processing fresh produce that run the highest risk of causing food-borne illnesses.
"This is a food safety concern for consumers who wonder if it is OK to serve this produce to their families, and it is an agricultural concern for growers who face another blow to sales of their product," said Harkin, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "It is long overdue for the FDA to exercise more oversight of food safety practices."
FDA and state public health officials said Thursday they were investigating the company's records, tests and products.
The recall covers 10- and 16-ounce bags, as well as 4-pound cartons and cartons that contain four, 2.5-pound bags, with the following tracking codes: 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.
The California Department of Public Health and the Food And Drug Administration are investigating the Metz Fresh processing facility in King City.
Salmonella sickens about 40,000 people a year in the U.S. and kills about 600.
08/30/07 16:09:36
Related Content
Metz Fresh LLC Consumer advocates and some lawmakers say that a Salinas Valley company's recall of spinach because of a salmonella scare shows that the federal government must do more to protect the nation's food supply, but industry officials call it proof that their voluntary regulations are working.
Metz Fresh, a King City-based grower and shipper, recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach Wednesday after salmonella was found during a routine test of spinach it was processing for shipment. More than 90 percent of the possibly contaminated cartons never reached stores, company spokesman Greg Larson said.
California's leafy greens industry adopted the voluntary regulations last year after a fatal E. coli outbreak, but advocates said a national, mandatory inspection and testing program overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is needed.
"Eight thousand cartons left the plant for distribution in the U.S. That's 8,000 too many," said Jean Halloran, a food safety expert with Consumers Union. "At this point, we are relying on the leafy green industry to police itself."
Some growers said Metz Fresh's ability to catch the bacteria showed that the new testing regimes are working. No illnesses have been reported from eating spinach linked to the company.
"I think the test of the industry is how we react to these types of situations," said grower Joseph Pezzini, who heads the board that administers the new produce safety rules. "No one was harmed by the product and that's important."
Larsen said the recalled spinach, which was picked Aug. 22, had tested negative in earlier field and production tests. Metz Fresh began telling stores and restaurants on Aug. 24 not to sell or serve the lettuce after a first round of tests came up positive.
"The first thing we are looking at right now is making sure this product, as much as possible, is under our control," he said. "The next step is to back up and take a hard look at how this happened."
Metz Fresh has complied with the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, a set of voluntary food safety rules drafted after last year's E. coli outbreak in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened 200. By joining the program, participants also agree to have their fields and plants checked for compliance.
In two separate plant and field visits earlier this month, California auditors found no signs of danger at Metz Fresh, said Scott Horsfall, who oversees the industry-sponsored program.
"I'm not trying to put a pretty face on it, but the overall system is working very well," Horsfall said. "Consumers can have a high degree of confidence in this product, notwithstanding this recent problem."
But some legislators said the latest recall showed the FDA had yet to improve a patchwork produce safety system critics believe is vastly understaffed and poorly monitored.
"This in no way should be seen as a success story," said state Sen. Dean Florez, who chairs a committee on food-borne illnesses. He said that Metz Fresh should have caught the salmonella before any of its spinach reached consumers, and that he has written the state's agriculture secretary demanding answers about "this breakdown in California's food safety system."
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is crafting legislation that would set up national food safety practices for growing and processing fresh produce that run the highest risk of causing food-borne illnesses.
"This is a food safety concern for consumers who wonder if it is OK to serve this produce to their families, and it is an agricultural concern for growers who face another blow to sales of their product," said Harkin, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "It is long overdue for the FDA to exercise more oversight of food safety practices."
FDA and state public health officials said Thursday they were investigating the company's records, tests and products.
The recall covers 10- and 16-ounce bags, as well as 4-pound cartons and cartons that contain four, 2.5-pound bags, with the following tracking codes: 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.
The California Department of Public Health and the Food And Drug Administration are investigating the Metz Fresh processing facility in King City.
Salmonella sickens about 40,000 people a year in the U.S. and kills about 600.
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