Commentary: Food safety

Issue Date: December 20, 2006

What is the future for California grown?

By Christine M. Bruhn

This is the best of times. People are recognizing the value of eating fruits and vegetables and are eating more. This is the worst of times. Eating fresh produce is sending people to the hospital. Spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions and other healthful products are in the news as the source of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and hepatitis A. And California farmers are being blamed. Their reputation for providing safe, high-quality produce is questioned. Crops go unsold and consumer confidence falls.

Consumer reaction follows a predictable pattern: lost sales followed by a gradual return as the outbreak subsides. Advice to buy locally grown has new appeal as California is associated with recurring outbreaks. Restaurants selling tainted food also suffer. A restaurant chain in Pennsylvania went out of business as a result of a 2003 hepatitis A outbreak traced to green onions. Food service establishments don't want to be part of a food-borne illness story. The public and the food service industry want this to stop. So do growers.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the proportion of illness traced to fresh produce is increasing. Growers can expect more outbreaks in the future. This is because one in four Americans are at increased risk for food-borne disease. People are eating more fresh produce. Fresh produce does not undergo a pathogen "kill step." When eaten raw, any pathogen would still be viable. Health officials also have better reporting and surveillance techniques than in the past.

Growers may believe they have done all they could to prevent outbreaks, but this has not been enough. Consumers expect to eat fresh produce without getting sick. To survive, the industry must meet that expectation. Here are some suggestions:

Be sure you are doing it right: Follow Good Agricultural Practices/Good Manufacturing Practices as recommended by U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This includes providing sanitary facilities for field workers, ensuring appropriate water quality, using properly treated manure and ensuring worker health. All necessary procedures may be in writing, but the grower and processor must ensure that they are implemented. Verify that the cold chain is maintained throughout transit and into the supermarket. Under some conditions, pathogens can grow if stored above 40 degrees F. Since as few as 10 cells from E. coli O157:H7 can send a susceptible person to the hospital, temperature control is critical.

Invest in research: There are many unresolved questions related to growing, harvesting and processing that may increase the likelihood of produce contamination. The industry must provide funds for ongoing research that investigates possible sources and control of pathogens. All the answers will not be found tomorrow. This is an ongoing, long-term investment that will help the industry prepare for today's problems and tomorrow's challenges.

Be informed: Be aware of the latest information that can affect produce safety. Growers/processors or their representative should attend annual scientific meetings of organizations such as the International Association for Food Protection and the Institute of Food Technologists to learn about emerging concerns or protective practices.

Investigate new approaches: While following good agricultural practices is standard procedure, the produce industry should investigate new technologies that destroy pathogens. Irradiation is appropriate for some produce items. A carefully controlled, low-energy treatment can destroy 99.9 percent or more of E. coli O157:H7 without compromising flavor and nutritional value. Currently FDA does not permit this application; however if FDA approves a petition submitted several years ago, this option would be available. The organic marketing order prohibits irradiation, but conventional markets could enhance safety through its use. Sale of tropical fruit irradiated for insect disinfestations and hamburger and chicken irradiated for food safety demonstrates that consumers will purchase irradiated food.

Now is the time for the California and national produce industry to step forward with a verified on-farm and in-plant food safety program and new commitment to food safety research and innovation.

(Christine M. Bruhn, Ph.D., is director of the Department of Food Science and Technology's Center for Consumer Research at the University of California, Davis. She may be contacted at cmbruhn@ucdavis.edu.)

Online extra: Accusations are irresponsible

The following editorial appeared in the Imperial Valley Press. It is republished with permission.

"Irresponsible" might be the best word to describe officials who were unspecific in naming a source for the allegedly - and we stress allegedly - E. coli-tainted lettuce that made people sick at Taco Bell restaurants on the East Coast.

Other words, including "incompetent" and "unprofessional" might be applied to officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Taco Bell regarding how they have handled this matter.

First, lettuce has been named as the probable source of the illness-inducing E. coli bacteria even though health officials involved have found no such bacteria on any Taco Bell lettuce and concede they are not done with their investigation. They have focused on lettuce as the E. coli source because that is what the infected people ate most often.

Some research, eh?

Even if it turns out lettuce was the source, the fact is no Imperial County lettuce had even been harvested when people started getting sick late last month at Taco Bell outlets, and it would have taken more than a week after harvest for local lettuce to reach the East Coast.

Blithely stating the lettuce involved comes from the West, as the Taco Bell president did, is a blanket condemnation of growers of the region and that is horribly hurtful to those in the lettuce business who had nothing to do with the outbreak, including Imperial County farmers.

Imperial County Agricultural Commissioner Stephen Birdsall insisted that cultural practices make it nearly impossible for E. coli to be transmitted to lettuce in our county. That may be true, but we wish Birdsall had not even gone there, as such an explanation wasn't needed when the outbreak had nothing to do with Imperial County and its $77 million annual lettuce crop.

Even if our farmers were totally free of blame, they still were going to have a hard time selling their lettuce crop after the E. coli scare. Now they are going to have to dispel irresponsible statements of bumbling government and business officials to market their product.

CDC researchers have stumbled at every turn in this probe. First they thought the E. coli might have been on Taco Bell cheese or beef, while Taco Bell speculated it could have been the green onions. CDC researchers finally settled on lettuce - maybe - as the cause of the illnesses.

While CDC officials may turn out to be right about that, after seeing how haphazardly they and others involved in this mess do things, we are far from fully convinced.

Opinions expressed in Ag Alert guest commentaries are not necessarily those of the California Farm Bureau Federation. We invite Ag Alert readers to submit letters to the editor; for online submissions, please limit to 250 words and include your name, address and phone number. E-mail letters to agalert@cfbf.com

Top