Sacramento
– Three bills designed to give public health officials control
of leafy green industry regulation and inspection passed the state
senate floor Wednesday.
Sacramento – Three bills designed to give public health officials control of leafy green industry regulation and inspection passed the state senate floor Wednesday.
The bills, authored by Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, would give California Department of Public Health officials the power to regulate and inspect leafy green growers, processors and shippers. Florez introduced the bills in response to an E. coli outbreak in September 2006 linked to spinach packaged in San Benito County that sickened 204 people and killed three throughout the nation.
Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, who represents San Benito County, voted against all three bills.
“The industry has really stepped up,” Denham said.
The senator has previously stated that he is in favor of industry-led regulation and inspection.
“As I’ve toured throughout the Central Valley I’ve seen food safety is certainly being upgraded,” Denham said.
Kay Filice, chairwoman of the Central California Grower-Shipper Association, said the industry is already regulating itself in the form of a marketing agreement.
Some state legislators and consumer advocacy groups have argued that industry self-regulation does not ensure food safety practices.
The leafy green industry has argued that self-regulation is more effective than government regulation.
Almost all of the state’s leafy green handlers have signed the agreement, which implements tougher food safety guidelines and inspections, Filice said. The agreement is mandatory for all who sign up, she said.
“It’s very encouraging and exciting to know that 99.9 percent of the leafy greens (grown in California) will be under the marketing agreement,” Filice said.
Filice said the agreement is a collaboration of work between experts in the industry, growers, the government, and outside food safety experts and scientists.
And the industry has already started following the agreement.
“There are inspectors in the field every day in every district,” Filice said.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture oversees the inspections.
Had the industry waited for the government to act in the form of legislation, growers would still be waiting for direction, Filice said.
A marketing agreement also gives the industry flexibility as scientists learn more about how food-borne illnesses work.
“The marketing agreement offers the ability to adapt,” Filice said. “With legislation that’s in place it’s static.”
State and federal health officials were unable to determine how exactly the E. coli made its way into the tainted spinach. Investigators found the exact strain that caused the outbreak in cow and pig feces and water on the Paicines Ranch.
If the bill makes its way through the state assembly, Filice said the industry will continue with the marketing agreement.
