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

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